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(Beirut) – The fatal shooting by Egyptian security forces of nine Muslim Brotherhood members on July 1, 2015, may have been unlawful killings and could qualify as extrajudicial executions. Independent prosecutors should investigate the killings and hold accountable any members of the security forces found to have committed any unlawful killings or to have been otherwise responsible for them.
 
Egypt’s Interior Ministry apparently said that it had arrested the nine men in a raid before later claiming that security forces killed them in a shootout after the men opened fire on police with automatic weapons from behind a closed door in a Cairo apartment. Human Rights Watch spoke to 11 relatives and other witnesses with knowledge of the incident who said that security forces had arrested the men, fingerprinted them, and tortured them before killing them. The Supreme State Security Prosecution, which is charged with handling cases involving terrorism and national security, reportedly authorized the raid on the apartment and is also investigating the deaths.
 
Human Rights Watch has documented the security forces’ role in forcible disappearances that ended in death but has not previously documented an incident where security forces appear to have deliberately targeted a group of Brotherhood members with lethal violence outside the context of a protest. Independent prosecutors under the Prosecutor General should investigate the killings, not prosecutors from the agency that authorized the fatal raid, Human Rights Watch said.
 
“If these were extrajudicial executions, it would signal a new level of lawlessness on the part of Egyptian security forces,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. “As more information emerges, it is clear that the authorities have a lot of explaining to do as to how and why their forces killed nine men on July 1.”
 
The Interior Ministry announced on its Facebook page at around 1 p.m. on the day of the killings that security forces had arrested nine members of “the terrorist Brotherhood organization’s special operations committees.” A terse story on a pro-government newspaper website three hours later, citing an unnamed “security source,” said security forces had “succeeded in liquidating nine Brotherhood leaders.” At 8 p.m., the Interior Ministry issued another statement on Facebook offering a lengthy account of the raid on the apartment that claimed security forces had come under fire from men inside and had returned fire, killing all nine.
 
The bodies of slain Muslim Brotherhood members are shown in this Egyptian Interior Ministry photograph released on July 1, 2015. The ministry first said security forces had arrested the men, but later claimed that the men opened fire when security forces raided their meeting earlier that day in a Cairo apartment, leading security forces to return fire, killing all nine Brotherhood members in the apartment.
 
Both the Interior Ministry and relatives of the victims agreed that the men had gathered at an apartment in October 6 City, a western suburb of Cairo, on July 1. But what happened next is a matter of dispute.
 
The relatives told Human Rights Watch that the nine men belonged to a committee responsible for supporting families of Brotherhood members killed or detained in the two-year crackdown on the Brotherhood overseen by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Eight had traveled from governorates in the Nile Delta region to attend, while one lived in October 6 City. All were mid-level Brotherhood officials, some with histories of public service in parliament and professional syndicates, who assumed key responsibilities for the group after authorities arrested most of its top leadership.
 
Most relatives who spoke with Human Rights Watch said that they knew little about the committee’s business but that most of the men had been on the run from security forces since the military ousted former president Mohamed Morsy, a former top Brotherhood official, in July 2013. Since then, Egyptian authorities have arrested, charged, or sentenced at least 41,000 people, the majority of them Brotherhood members, according to independent Egyptian groups. Courts have sentenced hundreds of Brotherhood members to death or life in prison following unfair and politicized mass trials.
 
A lawyer who asked not to be named who had represented Sayed Dwedar, one of the committee members killed on July 1, said that Dwedar’s driver, who had driven Dwedar to the meeting that morning, called the lawyer at 11 a.m. to say that Dwedar was being arrested. The driver, who was waiting outside the apartment building, said that a large number of security forces had gathered in the area and some had entered the building. The driver did not mention hearing any shooting, but the lawyer did not ask. The driver then left the area. The lawyer spoke to him briefly later that night but he has since stopped responding.
 
The son of Nasser al-Hafi, one of the committee members killed on July 1, who was a member of parliament from the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Qalyubia governorate, told Human Rights Watch that a lawyer called him at about 2 p.m. on July 1 to say that his father might have been arrested and taken to prison. Other relatives said that they heard nothing about their family members until later that evening, when news reports began to circulate that security forces had killed nine Brotherhood members.
 
Relatives and lawyers who are representing the families or documenting the case for human rights groups, some of whom viewed the bodies at Cairo’s Zeinhom Morgue on the night of July 1, told Human Rights Watch that the nine men’s injuries indicated that they had been arrested before being killed and in at least some cases shot in the head. The relatives and lawyers also said that the photos and a video of the scene that the Interior Ministry released after the shooting did not show signs of a shootout inside the apartment, such as spent bullet casings, bullet marks on the walls, or blood stains.
 
Ambulances transported the nine bodies separately from the apartment to Zeinhom Morgue late that night. Dwedar’s lawyer and nine relatives told Human Rights Watch that most of the bodies bore signs of torture and abuse, including stab wounds, broken bones, and marks from electric shocks. At least four of the nine men had been shot in the head, relatives said. The lawyer, who said he had significant experience in fatal shooting incidents, told Human Rights Watch that one of the head wounds bore a circular burn mark, indicating the man had been shot at point-blank range.
 
Prosecutors are holding the autopsy reports for the nine men, completed by the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority, and not making them public, the lawyer told Human Rights Watch. Burial permission forms issued by the Health and Housing Ministry, viewed by Human Rights Watch, stated that most of the nine men died of gunshots, broken bones, and lacerated internal organs.
 
On the night of July 1, police arrested nine journalists who went to Zeinhom Morgue to document the arrival of the bodies. The police released all nine but later rearrested three: a freelance journalist, a writer for the independent newspaper Tahrir, and a photojournalist for the opposition news website Al-Shaab al-Jadid. Police are investigating them for belonging to a banned group and publishing false news, according to the Journalists Against Torture Observatory. Police have also arrested one of the men’s sons and 12 members of another slain man’s family, the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), an independent group, told Human Rights Watch.
 
On July 3, state-owned Al Ahram newspaper reported that a team from the Supreme State Security Prosecution visited the apartment to inspect the scene of the killings and seized money, weapons, mobile phones and laptop computers. The newspaper also reported the prosecutors had received a report from the Interior Ministry’s National Security Agency confirming the Interior Ministry’s Facebook account of the incident. According to the ECRF, state security prosecutors have not interviewed any relatives of the nine men.
 
The ECRF provided Human Rights Watch with copies of complaints the nine men’s relatives filed with prosecutors against an array of officials, including the interior minister, the director of the Interior Ministry’s National Security Agency, and the warden and chief of detectives at the Second Police Station in October 6 City. The complaints allege that police and national security forces arrested the men, who were unarmed, took them to an unknown location where they beat and tortured them, and then returned them to an apartment, where they killed them. The complaints state that the photos of the scene published by the government did not show signs of a shootout.
 
Egypt, as party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, is bound to secure the right to life to everyone within its territory. This requires it to ensure a full investigation into any incident of suspected unlawful killing by state officials, with full participation of relatives of the victims, and to prosecute anyone against whom there is evidence of having committed a crime.
 
The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials state that security forces shall use intentional lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life. Principle 22 states: “Governments and law enforcement agencies shall establish effective reporting and review procedures for all incidents.... In cases of death and serious injury or other grave consequences, a detailed report shall be sent promptly to the competent authorities responsible for administrative review and judicial control.” Principle 23 states: “Persons affected by the use of force and firearms or their legal representatives shall have access to an independent process, including a judicial process. In the event of the death of such persons, this provision shall apply to their dependents accordingly.”
 
“The government’s account of what happened on July 1 raises serious doubts and concerns,” Stork said. “President al-Sisi’s mantra about Egypt’s independent judiciary rings hollow in the face of the failure of the Prosecutor General to open an independent investigation.”
 
The Government’s Account of the Killings
At about 1 p.m., two hours after Dwedar’s driver reported his arrest, the Interior Ministry posted a short note to its Facebook page summarizing “the results of efforts by the security services” to arrest Brotherhood “central leaders” and “loyalists” accused of attacking public and private property and other “hostile acts.”
 
“In a related context, these security efforts to abort plans and movements by members of the terrorist Brotherhood organization’s special operations committees – which targeted army and police forces and public and vital facilities – resulted in the arrest of nine members,” the statement said.
 
Some relatives and lawyers told Human Rights Watch that they took the ministry’s statement as confirmation that the nine committee members – most of whom had been accused in the kind of cases described in the statement – had been arrested.
 
At 4:14 p.m., about two hours after the Interior Ministry published its first statement, Al Watan, a newspaper sympathetic to the government, published a one-sentence story online.
 
“A security source, in an exclusive statement to Al Watan, said that security forces succeeded in liquidating nine Brotherhood leaders inside an apartment in October [6 City], among them Nasser al-Hafi,” the newspaper reported.
 
A little more than an hour later, the Freedom and Justice Party posted a statement online confirming that security forces had killed some of its members and stating that they had been unarmed.
 
At about 8 p.m., the Interior Ministry published a lengthy post on Facebook that described the raid on the apartment as part of “the pursuit of the fugitive Brotherhood leadership, accused and convicted in cases of killing and acts of violence and terrorism.” According to the post, security forces learned that Abd al-Fattah Mohamed al-Sisi, who they alleged was the leader of the Brotherhood’s “special operations committees,” planned to host a meeting of other committee members in October 6 City, where he lived. (Al-Sisi is of no relation to President Abdelfattah al-Sisi.) The statement said that the Supreme State Security Prosecution authorized security forces to raid the meeting.
 
The ministry claimed that when security forces approached the apartment, those inside opened fire and security forces returned fire, killing all nine men. The ministry posted pictures on Facebook that purported to show at least four of the dead men, including al-Hafi, with two automatic rifles and ammunition clips lying next to their bodies. Identification cards had been placed on top of two of the bodies, and white pieces of paper with handwritten names appeared to have been placed on all four. Three members of the security forces were injured in the raid, the statement said.
 
A report on the raid the following day broadcasted by the privately owned ONtv television channel included additional still images showing at least four bodies on the ground on one side of a room lying next to the same two automatic rifles, another two bodies slumped – as if seated – near a low table nearby, and another dead man lying against a far wall.
 
In its Facebook post, the Interior Ministry claimed security forces found three automatic rifles, 132 rounds of ammunition and 43,700 Egyptian pounds (US$5,582) inside the apartment, as well as a document titled “Decisiveness – Fight Them,” which purportedly laid out plans for further “hostilities” against the army, police, judiciary, and media. Security forces also found information that “could help” determine who perpetrated the car bomb assassination of Egypt’s prosecutor general on June 29, the ministry claimed.
 
Account by an Independent News Website
On July 14, the independent news website Mada Masr published an investigation into the killings. Citing an anonymous senior criminal investigations officer at the suburb’s Second Police Station, Mada Masr reported that a police agent had “tipped off” the Interior Ministry’s National Security Agency about the upcoming committee meeting, which the officer alleged was intended to “plot a series of sabotage attacks.” A special forces group inspected the site before the meeting, Mada Masr reported, and police forces began the raid at about 10 a.m. According to the officer, who said he participated in the raid by a five-man “special police force,” three men inside the apartment were the first to open fire on the approaching police forces through a wooden door.
 
The entire shootout lasted from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the officer told Mada Masr.
 
Other witnesses interviewed by Mada Masr offered conflicting accounts. Some residents of the apartment building who spoke with Mada Masr said they awoke to gunfire, which ended quickly. A housewife in the apartment building told the news website that the gunfire had ended by about 9:30 a.m. Al Watan, the newspaper sympathetic to the government, posted a video to its website that included interviews with several people identified as local residents who said they had not heard any gunfire.
 
Mada Masr told Human Rights Watch that their reporter who viewed the outside of the apartment saw bloodstains on the floor but no bullet marks or bullet holes in the front door. A BBC Arabic television report about the incident that included footage of the door and hallway outside the apartment did not show or mention such bullet holes.
 
When asked why the nine men had been fingerprinted, the investigations officer told Mada Masr it was a normal procedure used to identify the dead, Mada Masr told Human Rights Watch. The lawyer who spoke with Human Rights Watch said that police typically fingerprint a person’s hands after death to identify them if they were not carrying identification cards or to match their fingerprints to other parts of a crime scene if they did not already have the men’s fingerprints on file. The Interior Ministry’s photographs show identification cards lying on two of the bodies.
 
Detailed Accounts About the Victims from Relatives
 
Sayed Youssef al-Sayed Youssef Dwedar
Dwedar, a 49-year-old teacher with a wife, four daughters, and two sons, was a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Office – its top decision-making body – from Kafr al-Sheikh governorate, in the Nile Delta. He left the governorate early on the morning of July 1 to attend the meeting in October 6 City, his lawyer told Human Rights Watch.
 
One of Dwedar’s daughters told Human Rights Watch that she last spoke to her father on the phone at about 12:30 a.m. on July 1. She said she had only seen her father occasionally since Morsy’s removal in 2013 because he had gone into hiding. Her cousin planned to marry soon, and the family had planned to visit their relatives together on July 1, but Dwedar apologized at the last minute and said he could not attend.
 
Dwedar’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that he met with Dwedar on the evening of June 30 to discuss a case he had filed on Dwedar’s behalf to have him reinstated as a teacher, a job from which he had been fired in Kafr al-Sheikh after the crackdown began. Dwedar met the lawyer to discuss his pension and told the lawyer that he planned to travel to Cairo on July 1 and return the same day, so they could meet again on the evening of July 1.
 
Dwedar and his lawyer spoke on the morning of July 1 but “suddenly” lost contact at around 9 a.m., the lawyer said. The lawyer called Dwedar’s home shortly after losing contact with him, but the family told him they could not reach Dwedar.
 
At around 11 a.m., Dwedar’s driver, who had transported Dwedar to October 6 City that morning, called the lawyer. According to the lawyer, the driver said that Dwedar was being arrested.
 
“There’s a lot of police around right now and some of them just entered the building,” the driver said, according to the lawyer.

The driver described the neighborhood in October 6 City before saying he was leaving and turning off his phone. Dwedar’s lawyer called Dwedar again, but there was no answer. Later that night, the lawyer spoke with the driver again, asking him to come to Zeinhom Morgue, but the driver said he was going home. The lawyer said he has not spoken with the driver again and that he has probably gone into hiding.

Dwedar’s nephew, who went to the morgue, told Human Rights Watch that Dwedar had been shot once in the back of the head as well as in his stomach and shoulder. He said he also saw a 25 to 30-centimeter stab wound on Dwedar’s back. Dwedar’s face and head were blue, and Dwedar’s nephew said a doctor at the morgue suggested to him that Dwedar might have been strangled.

The lawyer told Human Rights Watch that the wound in the back of Dwedar’s head had a circular burn mark around it, indicating that he had been shot at close range. He told Human Rights Watch that he had previously worked on many shooting cases, including protesters who died during the 2011 uprising and those who were shot and killed on August 14, 2013, when security forces dispersed a large sit-in at Cairo’s Rab’a al-Adawiya Square opposing Morsy’s ouster, killing more than 800 people in one day.

“It’s something I’ve worked with and seen myself,” he said.

Dwedar’s burial permission form states that he suffered broken bones, but his nephew said he did not see those wounds himself. Both of Dwedar’s hands had been fingerprinted. The nephew said he had never seen Dwedar with any weapons.

Nasser Salem Salem al-Hafi
Nasser Al-Hafi, a 54-year-old lawyer from Qalyubia governorate with a wife, three sons, and two daughters, was a member of the supreme committee of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and had been elected to parliament in 2012 in the first elections following Mubarak’s ouster in 2011, one of his sons told Human Rights Watch. On June 16, al-Hafi was sentenced to death in absentia in a mass trial also involving Morsy and 97 others in a well-known case alleging that he and other Brotherhood members conspired with militants who killed security forces to help al-Hafi, Morsy, and others break out of prison during the 2011 uprising. Other accusations against al-Hafi included joining a banned group – the Brotherhood – and attacking police and military facilities.

His son told Human Rights Watch that he hadn’t seen his father since August 15, 2013, the day after security forces dispersed the Rab’a al-Adawiya Square sit-in.

At about 2 p.m. on July 1, his son said, he received a call from a lawyer who asked about the family’s welfare before saying, “I want to give you a bit of bad news: Your father might have been taken to prison.”

At about 3:05 p.m., the family was watching the Al Jazeera television network when news appeared onscreen that nine Brotherhood members had been killed, including his father.

The son told Human Rights Watch that when he went to the morgue, he saw that his father had been shot numerous times: once in the chin, two or three times in the side, and five times in the back. He said that he saw dark red blotches around his father’s waistline which he first thought were signs of beating, but which a morgue doctor told him were likely marks from electric shocks.

Al-Hafi’s son said that his father had a wound on his forehead that looked as if someone had hit him, fracturing his skull. Both of al-Hafi’s hands were fingerprinted. Al-Hafi’s burial permission form, seen by Human Rights Watch, states that he died from gunshot wounds and lacerated internal organs.

Osama Ahmed Abd al-Fattah al-Husseini
Al-Husseini, a 56-year-old Arabic and religion teacher with a wife, two sons, and two daughters, led the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Kafr al-Sheikh and also served as president of the governorate teachers’ syndicate and head of a local city council, his son told Human Rights Watch.

His son said he last saw his father at dawn on July 1. The family had been living separately from al-Husseini for their own safety, the son said, but al-Husseini had asked them to come to the place he was staying the night of June 30. Like several other families, al-Husseini’s was living in a temporary apartment, having abandoned their home to evade security forces after Morsy’s removal. Al-Husseini had been accused in a number of “political” cases since 2013, his son said, but convictions issued against him had been overturned several times on appeal and he had no final criminal verdict existing against him. Mada Masr reported that al-Husseini was wanted by the authorities. Two weeks after police killed al-Husseini, his son said, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for inciting a protest, blocking a road, and chanting against the army and police.

On the morning of July 1, the family had gathered to observe the dawn prayer ahead of the Ramadan season fasting day. They prayed at home because al-Husseini believed it was too dangerous to pray in public.

Al-Husseini, a diabetic who had lost sight in one eye in 2014 and walked with a cane, rarely had discussed his activities with his family since Morsy’s removal in 2013, his son said. But the night before he left, al-Husseini had not slept and had been giving his son advice about taking care of the family, as if he knew he was going to die, the son told Human Rights Watch.

Al-Husseini left his phone with his son, but at about 9 a.m., the son told Human Rights Watch, al-Husseini called from Sayed Dwedar’s phone to reassure his son that he had arrived at the meeting in October 6 City safely and would call again when the meeting finished, at around 12:30 or 1 p.m.

About half an hour later, someone called al-Husseini’s phone, which was in al-Husseini’s son’s possession, asking for al-Husseini and instructing the son to tell his father that a man named Engineer Fathy – who was supposed to come to the meeting – had been arrested. The man said that police might have arrested al-Husseini as well.

The son said he learned that his father had died after reading the short story on Al Watan’s website. He went to the morgue to retrieve his father’s body and told Human Rights Watch that his father had been shot seven times in his chest and torso and had about five stab wounds in his left shoulder. Al-Husseini’s right arm was “totally shattered” between the elbow and wrist, the son said, and he could see bone protruding. Al-Husseini’s burial permission states that he died from gunshot wounds and lacerated internal organs. Both of al-Husseini’s hands had been fingerprinted.

Hisham Zaki al-Mahdi Khifagy
Hisham Khifagy, a 49-year-old doctor with a wife, three sons, and one daughter, was a Brotherhood official from Qalyubia. He had been convicted in a case alleging that he and others blocked a major road in Qalyubia and killed two people, his son told Human Rights Watch. The son said he last saw his father in August 2013, days after security forces dispersed the Rab’a al-Adawiya Square sit-in. Khifagy participated in the sit-in but went into hiding afterward.

On July 1, his son read on the Internet that his father had been arrested, so he traveled to the Second Police Station in October 6 City that day to learn of his father’s whereabouts. A policeman told him to go to Zeinhom Morgue. At the morgue, his son saw a wound from a bullet that had entered the back of his father’s head and exited through his jaw, and another that entered his right upper back and exited lower, from the right side of his chest. His son said that it seemed as if his father had been shot from above and behind.

His father had been stabbed in the lower back and had a broken right collar bone and dislocated right shoulder, the son said. The son also told an ECRF interviewer that his father showed signs of having been given electric shocks. The son told Human Rights Watch that both of his father’s hands had been fingerprinted. Khifagy’s burial permission form, seen by Human Rights Watch, states that he died from gunshots, broken bones, and lacerated internal organs.

Gamal Saad Ragab Khalifa
Gamal Khalifa, a 50-year-old pediatrician with a wife, four sons, and a daughter, led the Brotherhood’s media operations in Munifiya governorate, in the Nile Delta, before Morsy’s overthrow, and was also head of the doctors’ syndicate for the governorate, his son told Human Rights Watch. Authorities had detained him four times under Mubarak, for periods up to six months, the son said. After Morsy’s removal, prosecutors filed multiple cases against him, but the son said his father was acquitted in all but one, for which he served three months in prison.

His son saw his father for the last time early on the morning of July 1. Khalifa didn’t tell his family about his work with the committee but said only that he was traveling to October 6 City that day. The family learned that he had died from the Interior Ministry’s Facebook posts, the Al Watan website post, and human rights groups.

Another son, who could not be reached, retrieved Khalifa’s body from the morgue, though the son who spoke with Human Rights Watch saw pictures of his father’s body. He told Human Rights Watch that Khalifa had been shot once in the back of the head and at least once elsewhere. His jaw was broken and he had been stabbed in the back. According to the ECRF, both of his hands had been fingerprinted.

Abd al-Fattah Mohamed Ibrahim al-Sisi
Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, a 51-year-old engineer and businessman with a wife, three daughters, and a son, lived in October 6 City. He established the committee to support the relatives of detained and killed Brotherhood members, said one of al-Sisi’s daughters, who spoke with Human Rights Watch. Authorities arrested him twice under former president Hosni Mubarak, once for two months in 2006 and once for six months in 2010. After Morsy’s removal in 2013, prosecutors filed charges against al-Sisi and froze his bank accounts, and he went into hiding. The family has lived in 15 homes in the two years since the crackdown began, the daughter said.

She told Human Rights Watch that she last saw her father early on the morning of July 1, in an apartment the family had shared for just two weeks, when they all gathered for the dawn prayer. She returned to bed but heard her mother say goodbye to al-Sisi, who left with an envelope of money for the committee and said he would return soon. She said she had never seen her father with a gun.

She said her father and the rest of the family typically did not use the Internet or phones, for security reasons, and that the family heard nothing about her father until seeing news of the killings on television sometime that afternoon. When she and other relatives went to the morgue, she saw one gunshot wound in her father’s neck. She said her uncle saw six gunshot wounds on his body in total.

Human Rights Watch was not able to speak with al-Sisi’s wife, but a relative of his wife told Human Rights Watch that a medical examiner at Zeinhom Morgue told the family that al-Sisi had suffered severe cuts or stab wounds in his back, and that some of the other nine men had as well. The ECRF said that al-Sisi had been fingerprinted.

Taher Ahmed Ismail Abdullah
Taher Ismail, a 50-year-old veterinarian from Qalyubia, left his home on the morning of July 1 to travel to October 6 City, his wife told the ECRF. Mada Masr described Ismail as deputy head of the Brotherhood’s administrative bureau in the governorate. His wife told the ECRF that she heard about his arrest at 1 p.m. and learned around 5 p.m. that he had died.

Ismail’s wife told Human Rights Watch that she could see he had been shot five times, including once in the back of the head, once in his cheek, once in his hand and once in his heart. She said that his body bore signs of torture, including a broken right arm and a broken rib. She also said that both of his hands had been fingerprinted.

Muatasam Ahmed Ahmed al-Agizi
Muatasam al-Agizi was an unmarried 25-year-old sales representative for a pharmaceuticals company who lived in Gharbia governorate, in the Nile Delta. Human Rights Watch was unable to contact any of al-Agizi’s relatives, but the ECRF provided Human Rights Watch with copies of their documents concerning his killing, including information al-Agizi’s mother provided to the ECRF.

His mother told the ECRF that al-Agizi left his home at about 5 a.m. on July 1 to attend the committee meeting in October 6 City and was arrested at about 10 a.m. Al-Agizi’s burial permission form, seen by Human Rights Watch, stated that he died from five bullet wounds to the stomach, lacerated internal organs, and broken bones.

Hisham Ibrahim al-Dessouky
Hisham al-Dessouky was a 54-year-old secondary school adviser from Menoufia with a wife, two daughters, and two sons. Human Rights Watch was unable to contact any of al-Dessouky’s relatives, but the ECRF said that the family learned of al-Dessouky’s arrest at around 2 p.m. on July 1. Al-Dessouky’s wife told the ECRF he lived at home with his family and was not wanted by the authorities, according to her interview with the ECRF. She told the ECRF that al-Dessouky had been shot six times and had stab wounds on his back, and that his hands had been fingerprinted. Al-Dessouky’s burial permission form, seen by Human Rights Watch, states that he died of gunshot wounds to the chest and lacerations to his lungs.

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