Mona Eltahawy 'beaten, sexually assaulted' in Egypt detention

Mona Eltahawy, a former Reuters correspondent in the Middle East, was released on Thursday from overnight detention by security forces in Cairo that included a beating and sexual assault that left her with injuries to her arms and hand.

An Egyptian-American based in New York, she was in Cairo to cover the Egyptian uprising for several newspapers. Freed after being held for 12 hours, she posted Tweets that said she was sexually and physically assaulted while being held inside the interior ministry in Cairo, in the early hours of Thursday morning. One tweet said "beaten arrested in interior ministry".

Eltahawy said she was detained under the authority of the interior ministry and military intelligence officials and had suffered a serious sexual assault by up to half a dozen members of Egyptian security forces. She also said she had been kept blindfolded for hours. She posted this picture of her severely bruised hand and both her arms in casts.

A US embassy representative in Cairo said the reports of her detention were “very concerning” and that “US embassy consulate officers are engaging Egyptian authorities”.

Born in Port Said, Eltahawy reported for Reuters from Cairo and Jerusalem from 1993 to 1999. She settled in the United States in 2000. ■