CAIRO (AP) – The lawyer for three Egyptian journalists who were arrested while conducting street interviews said on Sunday that they were beaten and tasered by security officers during questioning at a central Cairo station.
Fatma Serag told The Associated Press the three – Hamdy Mokhtar, 38, Mohammed Hassan 18, and Osama el-Bishbishi, 35 – were accused of supplying Turkey-based television networks linked to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group with “negative” videos of life under the rule of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
The three, arrested on Sept. 26, were remanded into police custody for 15 days pending further investigation. They face charges of publishing false news and membership in the Brotherhood.
El-Sissi led the 2013 military ouster of Mohammed Morsi, the elected Islamist president who hails from the Brotherhood.
Serag said the beating and tasering took place at a police station located in the upscale Garden City district in central Cairo where the three were taken immediately after their arrest in the city’s downtown area. She said the three, while blindfolded, were questioned by agents of the domestic security agency from the evening of Sept. 26 until the next day.