Press Release
Imprisonment, Torture, and Harsh Sentences against the Sons of the Ummah... Is this What You Proclaim?!
(Translated)

British newspaper Telegraph, on Sunday March 9 2014 CE, presented videos leaked from inside Egyptian prisons, describing them as uncovering the dire situation in these prisons, as well as uncovering the systematic torture of detainees inside the prisons due to the similarity of its means and methods. One who listens to the painful testimonies of the prisoners becomes fully aware of the return of the police state, for there is no arrest warrant issued from the police, or investigation, or consideration given to the sanctity of homes, and the list of the charges is ready and prepared beforehand, and the prisoner only has to sign it under whips of torture and threats to bring his mother and rape her, as was mentioned in the testimony of one of the prisoners.

The wikirevolution site said that 21,317 were detained over the past seven months, and of them 16,378 were arrested during political incidents, and 1431 for breaking curfew, and 89 under the accusation of partaking in terrorist acts, and 80 arrested for sectarian violence, and at least 740 of them were detained and then referred to military trials.

It seems as though the appeal of the Interim President Adli Mansour for the General Attorney to reopen the investigation of the cases of forced detention - particularly university students - and the release of those who have not been proven to have committed any action criminalized by the law, is only to deter the people, and in the event that his appeals are answered it would be in very limited cases and in small numbers compared to the number of detainees. It also seems as though the General Attorney has not noticed the complaints and reports that are presented to him that uncover prisoners being subject to severe torture. This demonstrates the extent of the existing authorities disregard for the dignity and rights of the detainees.

Three Misdemeanor Courts in Alexandria issued on the past February 25 sentences of imprisonment reaching a total of 945 years, and fines of more than a half a million pounds, for more than two hundred of the people opposed to the military coup that ousted President Muhammad Mursi. On the next day the criminal court of Northern Cairo ruled for the exile of 26 accused from the Suez to the Mufti in preparation for their execution after convicting them in their absence and without the presence of their lawyers of undertaking "crimes of creating and managing a terrorist group with the goal of assaulting the freedom of individuals and harming the national unity and the waterway of the Suez Canal."

This is the painful reality in Egypt these days, arrest and torture and harsh sentences against the sons of the Ummah, so is this what the ruling authority proclaims? Can the ones administering this regime imagine that matters will stabilize for them or that they will gain peace of mind while they make enemies of a wide cross section of the Ummah's sons?! Now is the time for them to understand that this Ummah, the Ummah of Islam, will not accept a substitute for Islam, and that they will never be intimidated by prisons and detention centers and torture or even death, and that the rule by Islam under the Khilafah "Caliphate" state is a matter of life or death to them. The current regime should take a serious look at its way to understand that they have no choice but to take the side of the Ummah and rule by Allah's (swt) Shariah in the overdue Second Righteous Khilafah "Caliphate" state, and on that day all will delight in in its shade, the rulers and the ruled, the Muslims and non-Muslims.

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اسْتَجِيبُواْ لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُم لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ وَأَنَّهُ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ]

"O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered." [al-Anfal: 24]

Sharif Zayid
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
in Wilayah Egypt