A Port Said man alleged security forces dragged him through the street Wednesday and beat him as unrest continued in the coastal city.
The allegations are similar to accounts and video footage of protester Hamada al-Masry being dragged and repeatedly beaten by Central Security Forces on 1 February amid demonstrations at the presidential palace in Heliopolis, Cairo.
The Port Said citizen, Alaa Mostafa Mohamed, said he was headed with two colleagues to a sandwich shop near Shohada Square when an officer in a passing police car made "inappropriate signals" and exchanged insults with the men.
"I was surprised by a police officer and six of his soldiers grabbing me by my clothes. They dragged me [on ground] then they carried me to the car," he said.
"They sprayed [something] on my eyes so that I could not see them, then beat me severely."
The alleged incident comes amid an anti-government civil disobedience campaign in the city that began earlier this month. Employees from the SEWS factory for electrical wiring, the Alexandria and Cairo banks and the National Bank of Egypt joined the protests.
Demonstrators attempted to break through Armed Forces' cordons around the local notary office at the Port Said Court Wednesday before soldiers calmed them down.
The notary closed in the morning after dozens of protesters led by Ali "Spicy", a leader of the local Masry Ultras football fan club, were denied a request to notarize petitions for Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to take over the government from President Mohamed Morsy. After consulting the Justice Ministry, notary employees reportedly said they could not process the paperwork.
Spicy said the citizens would collect the petitions themselves and give them to military leadership to submit to the defense minister.
Unhappy with the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsy's performance, some protest groups in several cities have recently called for the military to seize power.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
