The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lawyer: Police beat Egypt bomb suspect 2 years ago
CAIRO — The young man suspected of blowing himself up inside a Cairo chapel during Sunday Mass, killing at least 25 people, had been arrested and beaten by police two years ago after allegedly taking part in an Islamist demonstration, his lawyer said Monday.
If independently confirmed, Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mustafa would be the latest Egyptian to be radicalized after being subjected to police abuse, a practice that was common for decades and has become rampant after a crackdown on dissent following the military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist president.
Speaking after a state funeral for the victims, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the suspect detonated a belt of explosives inside a chapel adjacent to St. Mark’s Cathedral, seat of Egypt’s ancient Coptic Orthodox Church.
The over 100-year-old chapel was packed with worshippers.
The dead included more than 20 women and children. Forty-nine others were injured, according to the latest figures from the Health Ministry.
Mahmoud Hassan, one of Musafa’s lawyers, said his client, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, was tortured until he confessed to the possession of weapons and explosions.
He also faced charges of membership in an “illegal organization,” Egyptian parlance for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group of which former President Mohammed Morsi was a senior official.
The Interior Ministry said late Monday that Mustafa belonged to a terrorist cell founded by an Egyptian doctor and funded by Muslim Brotherhood leaders living in exile in Qatar, long accused by Egypt of supporting militants groups. It said the cell was tasked with staging attacks that would lead to sectarian Muslim-Christian strife.
After his arrest, Musafa spent nearly two months in detention before being released on bail. A court later convicted him in absentia, according to the lawyer. Traumatized by the torture, he told his lawyer not to appeal, fearing he would be abused again if detained.
A police photo of Mustafa and a friend arrested on the same day showed the pair, clearly in their teens, with bleeding noses and bruised faces. Placed atop a coffee table in front of them was a rifle, ammunition and what appeared to be a homemade bomb.
Hassan insisted that Mustafa was not a member of the Brotherhood, but the young Egyptian student from the oasis province of Fayoum appears to have been radicalized by his experience in detention, a danger many Egyptian rights activists warn the government against. The activists seek freedom for anyone not involved in acts of violence.