A lawyer told Human Rights Watch in December that interrogators subjected Shehata, who once led Egypt’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, and his brother to electrocution and other mistreatment to force Shehata to confess to weapons possession and other charges related to violence. Attempts by the lawyer to file a complaint for torture were reportedly dismissed by the prosecutor.
“Government silence over reports that police electrocuted a university professor shows how far off course Egypt has drifted since the Arab Spring,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “While Egypt faces real security threats, the authorities are responding with methods that aggravate people’s grievances. The 2011 uprising was triggered in part by pervasive police brutality.”
Around two weeks after Shehata’s arrest, an Interior Ministry spokesman made a video statement posted to the ministry’s YouTube page that featured a video clip of Shehata admitting to manufacturing explosives and supplying them to Muslim Brotherhood protesters.