Civilians who were detained by the military last week gave testimonials on Wednesday recounting the torture that they endured and saying that thousands of innocent individuals remain in military custody.
Families of detainees, some of whom received military sentences while others remain in detention with no charges brought, tearfully pleaded for their release.
Rasha Azab, a journalist who was detained on 9 March, said during the press conference that the people remaining in military prisons went on a hunger strike on Wednesday in protest at the abuses they have been subjected to.
Human Rights lawyers condemned the prosecution of civilians in military courts and the military's torture practices and called for public pressure for the release of the detained.
“The legal measures are not enough because military trials are illegal. We need the solidarity of the youth of the revolution against every butcher who dared to lay his hand on an Egyptian,” says Gamal Eid, Head of The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.
The army dispersed Tahrir Square protesters by force on 9 March. Demonstrators say they were then dragged into the Egyptian Museum where they endured six hours of torture and mistreatment.
At 10 pm, they were transported to the military prosecution, where they said they were filmed in front of a pre-arranged display of weapons to pin the charges on them.
The detainees were then put back in vehicles and taken to the main military prison in Hikestep, east of Cairo.
According to Ahmed Ragheb, head of the Hisham Mubarak law center, the 173 detainees were then questioned in groups of 30 in trials that he describes as “lacking all the components of a fair trial”.
Ali Sobhy, an actor who was among the detainees, said that they were questioned inside the prison’s kitchen while cooks were working, and the judge kept asking them to keep it down. “If I were writing a trial scene for a comedy movie I wouldn’t be able to make it that laughable,” he says.
After the questioning, some detainees were released; others received military sentences, while some remained in custody with no explanation.
Among those who received military sentences are artist Amr Eissa and computer engineer Mohamed Adel.
Released detainees testified that most of those who received military sentences and those who remain in military custody are not thugs but are honest law-abiding citizens.
Ragheb added that even thugs are entitled to a fair trial and says that all those who were sentenced in military courts should receive a retrial.
Dozens of newly released military detainees recounted what they endured during their short time in the custody of the military. They all testified to having been electrocuted, insulted, stripped and severely beaten.
Salwa Gouda, a veiled activist in her 20s, who was among those who were detained on Wednesday, 9 March, said that the girls were stripped and underwent a virginity test in a room inside the military prison, while the doors and windows were open and a camera was taping them.
Gouda said that the officers accused the girls of prostitution as they were detaining them from Tahrir Square and fears that the videos could be used to prove the charge.
Sobhy says that while he was detained in the museum, his long hair, which was later shaved off in the military prison, was tied to a horizontal pole. Officers then proceeded to kick him in the knee and the chin, causing him to fall and then be pulled back up by his hair.
According to the testimony of many detainees, the army also mocked the demonstrators as they lay on the floor of the Egyptian Museum, taunting them with the revolutionary slogan, “Raise your head up high, you’re Egyptian,” before kicking them in the face.
Some of the people arrested were not protesters, but happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hisham Abbas, a company owner, was passing by Tahrir Square at the time that the military attacked the protesters camped in the Square. He made the mistake of denouncing the violence that he saw being used against protesters.
“I haven’t demonstrated since Mubarak’s resignation because this was the ceiling of my demands, and I wasn’t supportive of the strike, but people should not be beaten,” Abbas said.
Egypt’s armed forces vehemently deny the torture charges.
Hamdy Badin, the military police chief, told Al-Masry Al-youm that his officers neither beat protesters on 9 March, nor did they abuse any citizen inside the Egyptian Museum.
“The armed forces have repeatedly emphasized that they will not deploy force against the people,” Badin said.
Ashraf Kamel Suleiman, a Coptic citizen, said that two of his brothers and three of his cousins were arrested in the metro on 9 March and that they each received sentences of five years.
A vegetable vendor from thr Nile Delta governorate of Beheira also testified that her son was arrested by an army officer while he was standing with her at a vegetable stall. The widowed mother of four said she kissed the officer’s shoes to let her son go, but he kicked her away.
