Egypt’s hidden prison: ‘disappeared’ face torture in Azouli military jail
Guardian interviews with former detainees reveal up to 400 Egyptians being held without judicial oversight amid wider crackdown on human rights
Patrick Kingsley in Ismailia
The Guardian, Sunday 22 June 2014 10.06 EDT
Map showing the Galaa military camp in Ismalila and the location of the Azoulu military prison within it. The S1 block, which detainees describe as an interrogation block, is a few minutes drive from the jail
Hundreds of disappeared Egyptians are being tortured and held outside of judicial oversight in a secret military prison, according to Guardian interviews with former inmates, lawyers, rights activists and families of missing persons.
Since at least the end of July 2013, detainees have been taken there blindfolded and forcibly disappeared. Up to 400 are still being tortured and held outside of judicial oversight in the clearest example of a wide-scale crackdown that Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have jointly called repression on a scale unprecedented in Egypts modern history.
Prisoners at Azouli are routinely electrocuted, beaten and hanged naked by their tied wrists for hours until they either give up specific information, memorise confessions or until in the case of a small group of released former inmates are deemed of no further use to their interrogators.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/22/disappeared-egyptians-torture-secret-military-prison