Yanair News gate Saturday published new information about the arrest of 11 youth on terrorism charges in Beheira Governorate last week, and challenged police accounts of the details of the suspects’ arrests and charges.The suspects were arrested after security forces raided their apartment during a suhoor meal.
An eyewitness of the arrests told Yanair that the youth were blindfolded and barefoot while being transferred to the police vehicles.
Yanair said the police usually level “trumped-up charges of terrorism” on the participants of demonstrations or peaceful gatherings.
It referred to a state security report about the rationale behind the arrests, which said the suspects are accused of crowding, chanting against the police and army and throwing incendiary devices at a building belonging to the Qenawy tourism company, which caused damage to the façade of the building.
However, Yanair questioned the charges and published photos of the building with no trace of damage or violence.
At the same time, the report said that the security forces arrested the youth at Abdel Salam el-Shazly Street in front of the company while they were holding heavy wooden sticks, incendiary devices, banners and burning tires.
An eyewitness said while he was at his apartment, he saw two armored police vehicles along with a large number of police personnel beneath the house of one of the defendants’ grandfathers, where the 11 were inside, in direct contrast to the security report.
Yanair published a photo of inside the apartment after the police raid, which showed traces of blood and scraps of food on the ground.
The defendants’ lawyers said they tendered a request to the prosecution to review the apartment and listen to the eyewitnesses.
