Friday, April 11, 2014

The story of Karima El Serfy, one among 22,000 illegal Egyptian detainees


'Excuse me, can I just put my scarf on..?!'
'Someone give me something to cover myself with.. please'

These were the last words Karima El Serfy was heard saying before the line abruptly cut off as the military police savagely knocked down the front door of the apartment where she was staying by herself after the illegal detention of her father and brother.

Here's exactly what happened on the day of her arrest WITHOUT a warranty and without any charges!!!

On 29th of March at 8:15pm, a security force consisting of 5 Police cars, 2 of which were special operations units surrounded Number 93, Northern Youth Accommodation, 1st Aggregation.

At 8:21pm, Karima was sitting in her room speaking to one of her colleagues on the phone to suddenly hear the front door to her apartment smash and at least 20 armed men storm into her room. 'Excuse me, can I just put my scarf on..?!', 'Someone give me something to cover myself with.. please' were the last words her colleague heard before the line got cut off.

For about 3 hours many of the young men in her area tried to intervene and release her from the hands of those savage animals but this only lead to the assault of one of them and the detention of another two.

At 12 midnight, her brother managed to hover around the apartment block to see the security forces leaving the area after they dumped the 2 young men they had detained earlier.


Her brother asked around to find out that the security forces stormed their house, held his sister and terrorized her for over 3 hours and then left with many bags full of valuables and property from the apartment. He then entered the apartment to find it turned upside down and wrecked with a lot of basic furniture stolen. He also found Karima's jacket on the floor, wet with many tears.

'Karima is not here!', was the reply he got at the police station in the 1st Aggregation.

'News of the detention of Karima El Serfy in one of the State Security buildings', 'News of Karima's detention in a police station in New Cairo', 'News of Karima's deportation to Al Qanater Prison' – were all what her brother and friends heard in the following 24 hours.

'New of a sudden hearing by the Supreme State Security Prosecution court for Karima's father Dr. Ameen El Serfy (Dr Mohamed Morsi's private secretary) on the same day of her kidnapping?!!!

Many questions are raised around whether Karima's arrest was to humiliate her father and weaken him as he sees with his own eyes his daughter being assaulted in front of him?!

On Monday, the 31st of March, Mohamed Ibrahim, the Minister of Internal Affairs, came out to announce a new case with which Karima El Sefry has now being charged. The evening of the same day he obnoxiously requested that all talk of Karima's kidnap be stopped in order that her release be guaranteed.

Tuesday, 1st of April: 'State Security will not release Karima because her friends have published her story'!!! News of Karima's investigation, detention and deportation were by now floating around widely. Karima suddenly disappeared and was taken to an unknown location.

***Karima Ameen Abdel Hameed El Serfy, A 20-year-old, second year student of Law and Shariah in Al Azhar University is kidnapped and her location is currently unknown.***

Is this what you call a country???!!!

Karema is only a simple example of the chaos our brothers and sisters face on a daily basis in Egypt at the moment. There occurs many a kidnapping and disappearance that goes unheard of and un-investigated by the 'Security' forces which, ironically enough, have been in reality terrorising this nation.

Egypt has become the Republic of Secret Prisons and Police Departments where State Security and The Intelligence Service detain people, assault them and commit extreme human rights violation without being interrupted.

Karima has now joined 22,000 other detainees without charges in Egypt. What happens to them daily? What will happen to Karima El Serfy or Amr Rabee or Mohamed Ramadan or Malek Anas or Mohamed Yehia??

You may be wondering what you can do to help them. So why not:

1. Translate their story into another language to let the world know of the human rights violations taking place in Egypt?
2. Share it in groups, forums, Facebook, Twitter, Newspapers. Be their voice, get them heard!
3. Sign petitions for Human Rights Organizations to investigate these cases
4. Gather your family and friends and tell them these stories to enlighten them with this curse that has hit Egypt.

There's a lot to do if you are committed.

1 comment:

  1. Asaalmu alikoum wa rahmatullah

    Jazak allah khairan katheran for writing about our sister. I have mutual friends with her.
    We in Egypt need more support and coverage than what's out there.

    ReplyDelete