Prominent activist tortured – family

A leading Egyptian activist who was arrested amid a recent clampdown following anti-government protests has been beaten, threatened and stripped in custody, according to his family. A report on the Al Jazeera site notes that Mona Seif said her brother, Alaa Abdel Fattah, told his lawyers he was blindfolded and threatened that he would never set foot outside Cairo's notorious Tora prison. Seif told Associated Press her brother had filed a legal complaint about the alleged abuses with the state security prosecutors during a hearing on Wednesday to renew his pre-trial detention. Abdel Fattah, who rose to prominence with the 2011 uprisings that toppled long-time President Hosni Mubarak, was among more than 3 000 people who activists say were arrested since September protests demanding President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi step down. He was previously released in March, after serving five years in prison for taking part in a peaceful protest.