World

Secret Police Detentions of Activists on the Rise in Egypt

Published

11 years ago

June 18, 2015

In this April 24, 2015 file photo, an Egyptian youth carries a lit flare as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood gather in the El-Mataria neighborhood of Cairo, Egypt, to protest the 20-year sentence for ousted president Mohammed Morsi and verdicts against other prominent figures of the Brotherhood. (AP Photo/Belal Darder, File)

SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — The knock on the door came just before midnight, a group of plainclothes police demanding that 29-year-old Fatma el-Sayed, an activist with one of Egypt’s secular opposition groups, come with them. Her father pleaded to accompany her, but they took her away, alone.

For the next four days, el-Sayed was kept in a cell in the security agency headquarters in her home town of Alexandria — off official records, essentially disappeared into Egypt’s labyrinth of detention facilities. She was interrogated without a lawyer and denied the injections she needed after recent surgery.

“They tried to extract information from me,” she said — about fellow activists in the opposition group April 6, about the group’s call for a protest against the high cost of living, about any coordination with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“I gave them nothing,” she said.

Egyptian security agencies are increasingly detaining activists and students in secret, snatching them from homes or the street and holding them without official record of their arrest, as their families scramble to find them, activists and lawyers say.

Activists have tracked more than 160 such suspected disappearances in police custody during the past two months — a sign of the renewed unchecked power of security agencies. It is a return to past practices under autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, when detainees were held, sometimes for years, without trial under notorious emergency laws in effect for decades and lifted after his 2011 ouster.

El-Sayed was lucky. After four days, police filed a record of her arrest and released her on bail. She has been charged with membership in April 6, a leading force in the anti-Mubarak uprising that is now banned. Other missing activists have reappeared days or even weeks later when police finally filed arrest reports.

But the whereabouts of most remains unknown. Activists and lawyers fear they are abused during interrogation.

At least one of the missing turned up dead. Islam Ateto was taken by security agents in May as he left a classroom at a Cairo university, according to student unions. Soon after, police announced that Ateto was killed in a gunbattle with security forces in the desert, alleging he was wanted for the assassination of a police officer.

Government officials, including Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, have repeatedly denied there are any extra-legal detainees in Egypt, saying those in custody are held either on a prosecutor’s order or were arrested during the act of a crime.

With the recent spike in reports of missing detainees, government officials have largely ignored calls for an explanation.

Repeated requests by The Associated Press to the spokesman for the Interior Ministry received no response. A senior security official dismissed allegations of disappearances and questioned how it could be proven that security agents took anyone away.

However, another official said secret interrogations and detention were sometimes necessary when state security or intelligence agencies are pursuing terror cells that threaten national security. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the media.

The government has repeatedly touted its “war on terrorism” — a reference to its battle against Islamic militants carrying out stepped-up attacks and to a crackdown on Islamists following the military’s July 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. With the clampdown, many activists have gone into hiding, complicating efforts to determine who has been detained.

When grilled by the father of a missing woman on a private television station last week, Interior Ministry spokesman Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim insisted that if she had been arrested, “legal procedures must have been followed.”

The woman, Esraa el-Taweel, a 23-year old freelance photojournalist, was reported by her family to have been snatched on June 1 from a street in downtown Cairo, along with two male friends. Later, inmates got word to relatives that they had seen the two friends in a prison.

El-Taweel finally surfaced Wednesday, when a visitor spotted her at a women’s prison near Cairo. On Thursday, she was brought for questioning before State Security prosecutors, who usually deal with terrorism cases, the first official acknowledgement of her detention.

Lawyers say Islamists were frequently the targets of secret detentions over the past two years, and now the practice is increasingly being used against more secular activists.

One activist group, Freedom for the Brave, has documented more than 160 cases since April. Of those, 66 have resurfaced.

The Egyptian Coordination of Rights and Freedoms, a group of lawyers tracking missing suspected Brotherhood members, has recorded more than 210 cases as of May; one person has been missing since 2013.

The London-based Human Rights Monitor recorded 31 cases of disappearance in May alone, in addition to 13 others from the two previous months. The group reported the cases to the U.N Working Group on Enforced Disappearance, which usually follows up on such reports.

The National Human Rights Council, whose members are appointed by the state, has submitted 71 reported cases of missing people to the Interior Ministry and prosecutors’ office, said council member Nasser Amin. “In Egypt, there are plenty of cases of illegal detention,” a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, he said.

The council is working to determine if any missing cases reach the level of “enforced disappearance,” a crime against humanity under international law that involves a long period of disappearance, proof of an active government role and an exhaustive investigation to find the missing person.

Amin said the United Nations has designated 13 cases of people missing since the turmoil in 2011 as likely enforced disappearances and has sought an explanation from the Egyptian government.

During Mubarak’s 29-year rule, security agencies could hold detainees for up to a month in undisclosed locations under emergency laws. Some were held for years without charges or trials, with detentions constantly renewed. In the late 1990s and 2000, Egypt was a known location for the U.S. rendition program, in which foreign terror suspects were held in secret detention centers for interrogation.

After Mubarak’s fall, the emergency laws were revoked. In reaction to past abuses, Egypt’s 2014 constitution explicitly states police must have a judicial order for arrest, unless someone is caught in the act of a crime. Any detainee must be permitted immediate contact with a lawyer and family members, and be brought before judicial authorities within 24 hours.

“Before there was a legal framework for detention, now there isn’t,” said rights activist Mohammed Lotfy. But “some hard-core (police) … got used to a certain way of doing business.”

For families, the secret detentions mean a frantic search to figure out what happened to loved ones.

Hossam Gouda, a pharmacist, disappeared from the streets of Cairo more than a month ago, his sister, Hanan, told the AP.

Known for Brotherhood sympathies, Hossam Gouda had moved away from Cairo. Police officers came to the family home twice looking for him, once last year and again in March. On May 9, during a visit to the capital, he disappeared. A search of multiple police stations produced nothing. Through acquaintances in the police force, the family finally learned he was possibly being held at a police station in southern Cairo, she said.

Officers there denied holding him and told the family to stop looking. “They told us, if you keep up pressure … he will be transferred to another place,” Gouda said.

“We are looking for any lead,” she said, adding the family fears he is being tortured.

Mohamed elBaqer, a rights lawyer, said one of his clients, a cleric accused of inciting against the government in his writings, was taken from his home on May 26, along with his two brothers. The cleric, Sheik Anas Sultan, resurfaced four days later when he was taken to the prosecutor’s office, but only after he had been subjected to electrical shocks, elBaqer said.

Secret detention “increases the psychological pressure on the detainee to extract more information,” elBaqer said. “These are the tools for terrorizing people.”

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African Union Group to Award Rev. Dr. Amos Brown for Bringing Civil Rights Movement to Global Stage

Dr. Macaulay Kalu, secretary general of AU6RG, will present Dr. Brown with the Global Peace Builder Award. Other presenters include Rev. Dr. Freddie Haynes, senior pastor of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas; Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, long-time advocate for appropriations to Africa as a congressmember; Rick Callendar, California-Hawaii president of the NAACP; Dr. Ike Neliaku, president and chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations; Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, head of the African Leadership Group and Ambassador Thompson and John William Templeton, founder of the Journal of Black Innovation National Black Business Month®.

Published

4 months ago

August 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Dr. Amos C. Brown, pastor emeritus of Third Baptist Church with Ambassador Ladi Peter Thompson of the African Unity 6th Region Global and with John William Templeton, founder of the 22d Journal of Black Innovation National Black Business Month®. Courtesy photo.

By Carla Thomas and John William Templeton

On Aug. 31, the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco will mark its 173rd anniversary with an event steeped in history and global significance. This year’s commemoration, themed “Achieving Dr. King’s Promised Land Together,” will honor the lifelong achievements of Dr. Amos C. Brown, Sr.— a towering figure in the Civil Rights Movement — on a day that also observes the International Day for People of African Descent.

Brown will be recognized by the African Union’s organ for Africans abroad for ‘planetizing’ the civil rights movement gains at San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, 1399 McAllister St., at 3 p.m.

The African Union, made up of 54 countries on the African continent, consists of five regions. It created a sixth region, the African Union Sixth Region Global (AU6RG), for the 400 million Africans living abroad. On Sept. 7, the second AU-Caribbean Community Summit occurs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Held during the 173rd anniversary of the church, the event called “Africa-America: Achieving Dr. King’s Promised Land Together” is a Diaspora-wide discussion led by Dr. Brown on what Martin Luther King, Jr. would say today.

Galvanized by the horrific 1955 slaying of Emmett Till, Dr. Brown’s journey in activism began in Jackson, Mississippi, where a neighbor, Medgar Evers, the NAACP’s first field secretary in that state, encouraged Brown to found the Mississippi NAACP Youth Council.

In 1956, Evers personally drove Brown to the NAACP convention in San Francisco, where Brown would first hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak. Brown became a prominent Freedom Rider, later attending Morehouse College and taking the only class Dr. King ever taught there. Thirteen years after Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Brown arrived at Third Baptist Church in 1976, serving with distinction for 49 years before his recent retirement. Under his stewardship, the church solidified its commitment to social justice and international unity.

His Excellency Rev. Ladi Peter Thompson, deputy secretary general for peace and security of AU6RG, said, “As a mentee of Medgar Evers, Freedom Rider and student of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Brown is the perfect authority for the young people of the Diaspora on achieving the prophetic goal that Dr. King foresaw in Memphis.”

Lady Dentaa Amoateng, founder of Grow, Unite, Build Africa (GUBA), will also announce that Dr. Brown is an honoree at the GUBA Award in Bridgetown, Barbados in November. The popular actress in Ghana and the United Kingdom will attend in person.

Dr. Lezli Baskerville, president/counsel of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, which includes 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and 90 predominantly Black institutions (PBIs), invites its students, faculty, and alumni to attend or join remotely.

“HBCUs produced both Dr. King and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and are the fountainhead for Diaspora unity,” said Baskerville.

Templeton, author of “ReUNION: State of Black Business, 22d edition,” said “Our movement will advocate the continuance of tariff-free treatment for Africa and the Caribbean; respect for African-American and African elected officials and the 13th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments and the strengthening of educational and research connections across the Diaspora.”

Templeton said Black institutions have been at the forefront of defining the image of 1.5 billion Black people globally, a mission that is even more important as African youth will be the majority of the world’s young people in the coming decades.

ABOUT THIRD BAPTIST CHURCH

Founded on West Indian Emancipation Day on Aug.1, 1852, Third Baptist said in its annual report in 1858 that its sole purpose was the elimination of American chattel slavery and took an active role among the California abolitionists who convinced President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. The current sanctuary is constructed with wood from the Goodall Mansion, where President U.S. Grant stayed after leaving the White House, and is the last place where Dr. W.E.B. DuBois spoke before leaving for Africa in 1958.

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Newsom, Pelosi Welcome Election of First American Pope; Call for Unity and Compassion

“In his first address, he reminded us that God loves each and every person,” said Newsom. “We trust that he will shepherd us through the best of the Church’s teachings: to respect human dignity, care for the poor, and wish for the common good of us all.” Newsom also expressed hope that the pontiff’s leadership would serve as a unifying force in a time of global instability.

Published

7 months ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Pope Leo XIV. Screenshot.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on May 8 issued a statement congratulating Pope Leo XIV on his historic election as the first American to lead the Catholic Church.

The announcement has drawn widespread reaction from U.S. leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who called the moment spiritually significant and aligned with the values of service and social justice.

In their statement, the Newsoms expressed hope that the newly elected pope would guide the Church with a focus on compassion, dignity, and care for the most vulnerable. Newsom said he and the First Partner joined others around the world in celebrating the milestone and were encouraged by the pope’s first message.

Newsom also expressed hope that the pontiff’s leadership would serve as a unifying force in a time of global instability.

“May he remind us that our better angels are not far away — they’re always within us, waiting to be heard,” he said.

Pelosi, a devout Catholic, also welcomed the pope’s election and noted his symbolic connection to earlier church leaders who championed workers’ rights and social equality.

“It is heartening that His Holiness continued the blessing that Pope Francis gave on Easter Sunday: ‘God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail,’” said Pelosi.

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Retired Bay Area Journalist Finds Success in Paris with Black History Tours

In the late 90s, Stevenson finally realized her dream of living in Paris, now with her daughter. She started exploring the history of Africans in the city and would go on to teach others the same. Her business, which she named Black Paris Tours (BPT), received a significant boost when a family friend gave her a stack of cash and encouraged her to expand on the knowledge that she had only started to share with people she knew.

Published

10 months ago

February 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Ricki Stevenson, Blacks in Paris. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

There were two things Oakland-born, East Palo Alto-raised Ricki Stevenson always dreamed of:

Going to New York as a newscaster to tell the true story of Blacks in America.
Living and working in Paris one day.

Her dreams of life in Paris began when she was three years old and her mother, a former professional dancer, took her to see Josephine Baker perform. She was 11 when her parents took her to the Stanford University campus to meet James Baldwin, who was speaking about his book, “The Fire Next Time.” Ricki says that’s when she knew she’d one day live in Paris, “the city of light!”

But before that would ever happen, she had a tumultuous career as a newscaster across the country that was inspired by her family’s history.

Stevenson recalls marching with Cesar Chavez as he fought for labor rights for farm workers in California.

“Are we Mexican too?” she asked her parents. “No, but we will fight for everyone’s human rights,” they responded to her.

Ironically, Ricki’s paternal family roots went back to Greenwood, Oklahoma, infamous for the 1921 bombing of Black Wall Street. A time when Black people had oil wells, banks, and a thriving business community.

This background would propel her into a 25-year journalism career that gave her the opportunity to interview greats like President Jimmy Carter, PLO leader Yassir Arafat, James Baldwin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, UN Ambassador Andrew Young, Miriam Makeba, and the leaders of South African liberation movements.

A job offer from KCBS radio brought her back to the Bay Area in the 1980s. Then came the switch to TV when she was hired as a Silicon Valley business reporter with KSTS TV, working at the first Black-owned television station in northern CA (created and owned by John Douglas). Along the way, Stevenson worked as an entertainment reporter with BET; coproduced, with her disc jockey brother Isaac, a Bay Area show called “Magic Number Video;” lived in Saudi Arabia; worked as an international travel reporter with News Travel Network; and worked at KRON TV a news anchor and talk show host.

In 1997, Stevenson realized her dream of living in Paris with her young daughter, Dedie. She started exploring the history of Africans in the city and would go on to teach others the same. Her business, which she named Black Paris Tours (BPT), received a significant boost when a family friend, Admiral Robert Toney put a chunk of money in her hand. He said, “Ricki, my wife and I have been coming to Paris for 20 years, but in just two days with you and Dedie, we’ve learned and seen more than we ever did before.”

Years after BPT took off, Ricki met Nawo Carol Crawford and Miguel Overton Guerra, who she recruited as senior scholar guides for Black Paris Tours.

Guerra says he is proud of his work with Black Paris Tours in that it provides a wealth of information about the rich legacy of African and African American history and influence in Paris and Europe.

“I tend to have a feeling for history always being a means of a reference point backwards … you start to understand the history, that it isn’t just the United States, that it began with African people,” Guerra says.

He said that it’s been a pleasure to watch people learn something they didn’t know before and to take them through the city to key points in Black history, like hangout spots for writers like Baldwin and Richard Wright, restaurants in the busiest parts of Paris, the home of Josephine Baker and so much more.

Although the tours are open to all, Guerra hopes that those of African descent from all over the world can embrace that they don’t have to just stay where they are because movies and media have portrayed cities like Paris to be only white, it’s multicultural and accepting to all.

“We’ve been here, and we’ve been there, going way back when. And we shouldn’t be considered or consider ourselves to be strangers in any place that we go to,” he said.

Stevenson notes they’ve had 150,000 people take their tour over the years, with notables like former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Smokey Robinson, Steve Harvey, Miriam Makeba, and more.

Friends and former media colleagues of Stevenson compliment the BPT crew on their knowledge of the city and their ability to always keep it interesting.

“He [Guerra] just had a deep, deep wealth of knowledge and he was constantly supplanting information with historical facts and the like. I love that it was demonstrating and showing how Black people have thrived in Paris or contributed to the culture in Paris,” Candice Francis said.

She toured in the summer of 2022 and stated that in the two weeks that they visited Paris, BPT was the highlight of her trip. She shared that she was proud of Stevenson and the life she’d managed to manifest and build for herself.

“Even if you’re visiting Paris for the tenth time, if you haven’t taken the tour, then by all means, take it,” Francis emphasized.

Magaly Muñoz, Gay Plair and Paul Cobb also contributed to this story. You can book your own adventure with Black Paris Tours at www.blackparistour.com.