Disappearance, torture rife in post-coup Egypt: Watchdog

ANKARA (AA) – Hundreds of people have been subject to forcible disappearance and torture at the hands of the Egyptian authorities, rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report issued Wednesday.

According to the report -- entitled "Egypt: ‘Officially, you do not exist’ – Disappeared and Tortured in the Name of Counter-Terrorism" -- such repressive practices do not only target political activists and protesters, but also students including children as young as 14 years old.

"Enforced disappearance has become a key instrument of state policy in Egypt," Philip Luther, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program, said.

"Anyone who dares to speak out is at risk, with counter-terrorism being used as an excuse to abduct, interrogate and torture people who challenge the authorities," Luther asserted.

The report documents cases of people who have been forcibly disappeared and tortured -- by beatings and electric shocks on their bodies, including their genitals -- to force them into making false confessions.

"The report delivers scathing criticism of Egypt’s Public Prosecution, which has been complicit in these violations and cruelly betrayed their duty under Egyptian law to protect people from enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest, torture and other ill-treatment," Luther said.

In a Wednesday statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the report, going on to accuse the NGO of lacking objectivity and distorting Egypt’s image for political reasons.

In the three years since Mohamed Morsi -- Egypt’s first freely elected president -- was ousted in a military coup, the Egyptian authorities have waged a harsh crackdown on his supporters and members of his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, killing hundreds and throwing tens of thousands behind bars.