Mahmoud Shaaban, member of the presidential campaign of Mohamed ElBaradei, said on Sunday that security forces kidnapped him in the coastal city of Alexandria on Saturday and questioned him about the campaign’s relation to the April 6 Youth Movement, which authorities say receives funding from foreign countries.
He said two men kidnapped him in front of his house, forced him into a small car and blindfolded him during the interrogation, which lasted for nine hours.
“They mocked me when I asked for a glass of water, as I was fasting,” Shaaban said. “'Since when do secular and liberal people fast?' the investigator told me.”
“They called the investigator Medhat,” he added. “And he told me they would get us activists one by one.”
“Then they dumped me at the entrance of the Cairo Alexandria Desert Road,” he said.
But Shaaban did not say if it was the National Security Service that arrested him. The service replaced the notorious State Security and Investigations Service a few months ago.
The military council has accused the April 6 Youth Movement of receiving funds from the United States, while ElBaradei supporters were often harassed by the Mubarak regime.
