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Politica
07 gen 17:57
Abu Omar: Mastella, "Risposta da Governo entro fine mese"
BENEVENTO - "Credo che entro questo mese daremo una risposta". Lo ha detto il
ministro della Giustizia Clemente Mastella, in merito alla posizione che
l'esecutivo guidato dal premier Romano Prodi dovra' prendere sulla vicenda di
Abu Omar, l'ex imam della moschea di Milano rapito da un commando il 17
febbraio 2003. Il Governo dovra' tra l'altro decidere se inoltrare o meno negli
Stati Uniti le richieste di arresto a carico dei 26 agenti della Cia accusati
di aver sequestrato Abu Omar e presentate dalla magistratura di Milano. (A
www.corriere.it/ultima_ora/agrnews.jsp?id=%7BA97AEBFD-4374-42...
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Esteri
08 gen 00:09
Voli Cia: Abu Omar racconta il sequestro e le torture subite
IL CAIRO - Abu Omar racconta il suo rapimento in Italia e le torture subite
nelle carceri egiziane. L'ex imam di Milano, rapito nel febbraio 2003 da agenti
della Cia, parla della sua avventura in una lunga lettera scritta a mano e
pubblicata sulle pagine del quotidiano americano Chicago Tribune. Per questo
sequestro la Procura di Milano, lo ricordiamo, ha emesso un mandato di cattura
europeo per 26 agenti americani e cinque italiani. L'egiziano descrive
dettagliatamente il sequestro, il trasferimento in aereo in Egitto e le torture
subite, tra cui elettroshock, pestaggi e anche abusi sessuali. (Agr)
chicagotribune.com
January 7, 2007
Tribune exclusive: "This is how they kidnapped me from Italy ... and how they tortured and imprisoned me in Egypt."
The document is now in the possession of Spataro, who says he has verified its
authenticity.
'This is how they kidnapped me from Italy'
Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, set down on paper his
version of his abduction in Italy and imprisonment in Egypt. The 6,300-word
letter, written in Arabic script and smuggled out of Egypt's Torah Prison by a
visitor, is now in the hands of Italian prosecutors, who say they plan to offer
it to the court as his testimony in absentia. Here is the text of the letter in
English from a translator hired by the Tribune. It is a complete text except
for a few edits and missing words that are noted in brackets.
This is how they kidnapped me from Italy … and how they tortured and
imprisoned me in Egypt
I / Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr known by the name "Abu Omar" the kidnapped
Islamist off the Italian streets of Milan on 17-02-03 by U.S. intelligence
agents as well as agents of other countries and the currently imprisoned in the
Torah reception jail in Cairo.
I record my testimony from within my tomb and gravesite: and my body has
weakened and my mind has become distracted and my illnesses have increased and
the signs of my death and termination have appeared.
I record my testimony from within my tomb and gravesite: and my facial
features have been altered by the screams of the tortured and the sounds of the
whips and the hell of the jail cells.
I record my testimony from within my tomb and gravesite: and I am powerless to
do anything other than give the highest thanks and loyalty and appreciation to
all who have lit a candle light of hope on the road leading to the uncovering
of the mystery of my kidnapping from Italy and my imprisonment and torture in
Egypt.
Before I start telling my testimony, I regard it as my duty to give some
important pieces of information that may reveal the mystery of my kidnapping
and the parties involved in it:
1. One of the Egyptian security officials who was interrogating me told me, as
I was blindfolded with my hands secured behind me, and dispossessed of all my
clothes, naked as the day my mother had given birth to me, hanging from my
feet, my head down, I say this interrogator told me that he visited Italy a
little while prior to my kidnapping and he told me and described to me the
Mosque in which I pray as well as the Mosque of the Islamic Cultural Institute
on [Jenner] Street, he also described to me the streets leading to my home and
the home building number as well as the floor that I live on; i.e. the Egyptian
regime was aware of the kidnapping operation and the Egyptian authorities may
have been involved with the U.S. intelligence and others and I cannot describe
this interrogator or identify his name as I was blindfolded.
2. One day after my kidnapping, as I heard from trusted sources in Italy, the
Austrian security authorities subpoenaed Sheikh/ Shawky Mohamed who is an
Austrian citizen and who works in the field of Da'wa [missionary work] and they
asked him about everything with regards to a person called Osama Moustafa
Hassan Nasr (me), and none of my friends, or my wife or anyone had knowledge
[missing words]. So did the plane that transported me above Austrian lands.
3. I ask that the Italian judiciary listen to the testimony of Mr. Nabil El
Tounsi who is currently imprisoned in Milan for he has information that may be
important regarding my kidnapping.
4. Approximately one month prior to my kidnapping, I used to receive phone
calls on my cell phone and someone would ask: "Is Abu Omar there?" Or "could I
speak to Abu Omar?" and when I would tell him that I am Abu Omar he would hang
up, i.e. my cell phone was being monitored all day and night as well as my
private computer, I would receive many emails which when I opened would result
in causing defects to my computer.
5. One of the security officers in Egypt told Sheikh Mohamed Reda El Badry
that there was a video camera inside Abu Omar's apartment in Milan and he was
videotaped for a period of time that was not small. And now I begin to describe
my kidnapping:
I was walking from my home 0n (Conti Verdi Street A18 ) in the middle of the
day on Monday 17.02.2003 to perform my noon prayers at the Mosque of the
Islamic Cultural Institute on [Jenner] Street, and I had left my job at the
Mosque of the Islamic community on road 95 a few months prior to my kidnapping
and all connections between me and those who prayed there had been severed.
I say: As I was going to perform my noon prayers, I had in my pockets the
following items:
A. 450 Euros, I was going to pay 400 Euros, the rent amount for the apartment
in which I resided with my wife.
B. My Italian passport (the political asylum passport)
C. The Italian Residency (the Sigorno).
D. My cell phone.
E. The social security card.
F. My medical card.
G. A watch that was in my hand.
H. My apartment keys (Conti Verdi Street A18 ).
And these items are present at the headquarters of the Egyptian Intelligence
in Hadayek Al Quba across from the Republican Palace and I have not gotten them
back to this date and they ordered me to write a declaration that I had come to
Egypt without any possessions.
And I witnessed while outside the doorway of the building in which I reside, I
witnessed a white van (about 2 ton) and completely closed, the van passed in
front of me and I did not pay attention to it and as I walked on the street
next to the mosque and across from a public park and a few meters away from
uninhabited apartment buildings and a security kiosk at the bottom of the
buildings, I saw a red Fiat 127 that stopped near the sidewalk where the gate
to the public park is and the driver of the car rushed towards me and took out
of his pocket a card and passed it in front of my face and told me police and
asked for my Sigorno papers and so I took out my Italian passport as well as my
Sigorno and showed them to him. He took out his phone and called a number that
I don't know and began to give out my details and he was standing on the
sidewalk where the buildings were and he was facing the public park while I had
my back to the public park and was facing the officer and the features of this
person who stopped me suggested that he was an American: His hair was blonde
with a bald spot in the front and his face was white with a reddish tint and he
was about 169 cms in height and my entire focus was on this person and so I did
not pay attention to the car that kidnapped me and which is the same car that
passed in front of me as I left my home (the white van) and I think that this
van arrived as this person was speaking to me and parked by the sidewalk on
which I stood. Suddenly, I was being lifted off the ground so I turned my head
and saw two Italian-looking people each of whom was at least 187 cms tall or
maybe more and who seemed to be in their thirties, as for the American, he was
probably in his forties.
And an Egyptian woman who was walking witnessed my kidnapping and she resides
on the same street that I was kidnapped off and she was the one who informed
the Arabs in the mosque on [Jenner] Street-the cultural institute.
I say: I saw myself lifted into the van so I tried to resist but I was
severely beaten in my stomach and the rest of my body and was forced down onto
the floor of the car and my face was then masked and the van was dark inside
after the door was shut and my hands and feet were then tied and the car sped
away while I was in pain from the severity of the beating and as the car drove
on, my physical power began to collapse and sounds came out of my mouth that
resembled the death gurgle and liquid came out of my mouth (white foam) and my
body began to stretch out and both my legs began to stretch out strongly and
unawares a few drops of urine fell from me without my will and then I heard the
screams of one of these two persons who kidnapped me and they both began to
tear at my clothes quickly and one of them began to compress on my heart
(massage) and the other removed the mask on my face and pointed a small light
onto my eyes and then after he was reassured that my eyes were following the
light he covered my face again and spoke with his partner and they both left
me.
The car drove on for many hours, I don't think I would be mistaken if I said
around 4 hours approximately and then the car stopped and some people carried
me by the arms and legs after removing my shoes and taking them and I don't
know whether they were other than the two people who were with me in the car
and who kidnapped me off the streets of Milan. And was I transferred to another
car or onto a small plane? I'm not sure. But what I can say is that I felt no
air bumps or shortness of breath the way it happens to those who ride a plane.
At the same time I felt no shaking or the presence of bumps as those who ride a
car might feel.
And I don't think that they sedated me for I was self-aware and aware of those
around me although the awareness was not full perhaps because of the beatings
and the pain I was feeling or maybe they did lightly sedate me, all conjectures
are possible.
The car or the plane went on for a short while, about an hour or slightly
longer and then they took me out and put me somewhere while I was still
blindfolded and with my hands and legs still tied, this place where they put me
is an airport, I recognized that from the sounds of the air conditioners or the
sounds of engines or maybe both. They left me alone for a while or maybe they
were with me but I heard after a short while the sounds of many feet maybe 7 or
8 sets. After that they stood me on my feet and began to cut the plastic
restrictions binding my feet and they removed my clothes and they definitely
cut off my clothes with tools that they had for I did not feel their hands and
they did the same with the restrictions on my hands and they dressed me in
other clothes and in a sudden moment they removed the blindfold that was on my
eyes and I saw many men or shadows in front of me, for I could not see very
well because of the length of time that I was blindfolded; these people were
wearing the same clothes like the ones worn by special units and I saw in the
many pockets in their clothes tools such as those carried by men of special
operations such as knives and screwdrivers … etc. I saw all of this in just a
few seconds in which they photographed me and then they bound my whole head and
face with wide adhesive tape (wide Sellotape as it is called in Egypt) and they
left an opening for my nose and one for my mouth and they tied my feet and
hands from behind with plastic binds and then they lifted me into an airplane,
I realized that it was a plane after it flew for I felt what a passenger may
feel at takeoff as in shortness of breath and a narrowness in the chest. Inside
the plane, I felt an extreme chill to the extent that I thought that I was
inside a fridge as the temperature was under zero and as the plane took off the
temperature in the plane began to rise.
When I went on the plane I heard the sounds of soft classical music and I was
lying down maybe on the floor and there was a mattress beneath me or maybe I
was lying across more than one seat but I did not move left or right during the
cruise and as the plane took off they placed earphones in my ears so I didn't
hear anything other than music and the movement of feet of those on the plane.
Were there others with me on the plane, passengers or other abductees? Was the
plane a civilian plane or a military one? I know nothing.
I forgot to mention that they tied my right toe with wire I believe it was
attached to an instrument that was measuring my heartbeats. And maybe they
placed other wires on my body, I don't remember because I've been living in a
state of terror, fright, fear and shock since I was kidnapped off the street
and until the moment that I am writing these papers (the testimony) for I am
absolutely certain that I will be physically eliminated after this brutal
torture that I am experiencing day and night.
The plane flew for many hours, approximately 7 hours. I wasn't aware of our
destination and I wasn't presented with any food from the moment of my
abduction off the street. I experienced on the plane extreme difficulty
breathing but nobody cared except after they were certain of my impending death
then I felt a respirator invade my nose and they hit me several times on the
face after which I felt that we had arrived at our desired destination as I
felt the plane circling about the airport waiting for permission to land
Sure enough, it was only a few minutes before the plane began its descent and
a little while later I felt someone tying my feet and hands with more plastic
binds in addition to the ones already there, I screamed from the severity of
the pain as if knives were cutting into my hands and feet and sure enough I was
bleeding and I think they feared that I would do something as I was descending
from the plane even though I was in a very bad health condition.
They removed the earplugs that were in my ears and I heard the sounds of
airplane engines and the voices of people but I was unable to distinguish the
language that they were speaking in. Then, I heard the sound of feet coming
towards me and they carried me and stood me on my feet and they began to walk
me and I saw myself go down about 3 or 4 steps and became certain that the
plane was not a civilian plane or that it was a small military plane as the
stairs to civilian planes are not less than 20 steps. As soon as my feet
touched the ground, I heard someone speaking in Arabic with an Egyptian accent
and say to me, "come up"--although he could see the bindings on my feet, so
they helped me up, and it must have been a mini-bus. They seated me in the back
seats and someone sat next to me and I think he saw the bleeding from my hands
for I felt a knife cutting through the plastic binds and replaced by metal
cuffs. I was scared to ask him to do the same with the plastic binds on my feet
for I am dead dead for sure, so there is no harm in me being patient for the
remaining hours before I meet the angel of death.
The mini-bus sped through the streets of Cairo and it was little under a half
hour later when the vehicle stopped and the door was opened and they ordered me
out. I didn't know where am I? What's the name of the place they were taking me
to? I entered a building and in a room they removed the binds on my feet or to
be more exact they cut the plastic binds on my feet and they directed me
towards and facing a wall and they removed the tape on my face as I screamed in
pain as the tape took out some of the hairs of my beard and mustache as well as
my eyelashes and eyebrows and my face bled. They ordered me to open my eyes and
close them very quickly and a few minutes later they began to completely
undress me and they replaced the clothes and dressed me in blue garb (prison
clothes) and I saw the faces of three Egyptian men of course and a photographer
came and began to photograph me from all angles and then they bound my hands
and feet and blindfolded me and took me to an office and I was in a terribly
ill state. They sat me on a chair and I heard the voice of someone say to me,
"We will begin interrogations with you now," and he began to ask me my name,
age and everything about my job and family and my travel outside Egypt and then
he said to me, "In the room there are two great Pashas and one of the Pashas
will speak to you," (and the word Pasha in Egypt currently means someone of
extreme importance either politician or military) and the great, great Pasha
said to me, "Do you hear me well?" So, I answered, "Yes." Then he said to me,
"I will ask you one question and I want a brief response from you without
excess, actually no, just a one-word response. Do you accept to work with us in
exchange for your safe return to Italy?" So, I said no and I wanted to continue
but he said, "Be quiet, don't speak at all." [Brief passage redacted to remove
unconfirmed speculation about Egyptian interrogator's identity.] After this,
they took me to a cell approximately 2 meters by 1½ meters and which had no
toilet and it had a simple light and a very small opening in the ceiling for
penetration of air and they removed the bindings on my hands and feet as well
as the blindfold on my eyes and I slept the first night or more correctly the
first day, for it was approximately 5 or 6 a.m. since I had heard the call to
dawn prayers when I first arrived at the building. I slept for a few hours out
of extreme pain, worry, despair, fear and terror and then someone wearing a
military uniform opened the cell door, I later learned that I was in the
National Security and Egyptian Intelligence headquarters building, and he tied
a blindfold around my eyes and took me to a bathroom and instructed me, "Do not
remove the blindfold until after you enter the bathroom and the door is closed
and knock on the door when you are done so that I may come and blindfold you
again." Then they presented me with some food and about an hour later they
opened the cell door and blindfolded me and tied my hands and took me to an
office and the interrogations and torture began, they removed all my clothes
and removed the binds on my hands and replaced them with other binds that were
like three binds; 2 binds on my hands behind my back and one bind which they
tied around one foot so that I was standing on one foot and I would fall to the
floor naked as they laughed and lifted me back up and again and again and the
electric shocks began as well as the hand beatings and the threats to rape me
if I refused to talk and if I held back anything I knew and then they gave some
paper and a pen and asked me to write everything about my life and to the day
that I departed Egypt and what I did outside Egypt. The interrogations were
repeated a number of times and they showed me many pictures of people in Italy
(Egyptians, Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans, etc.)
The atmosphere inside the cell was really bad despite the presence of lighting
and despite leaving me without a blindfold but the size of the cell was like
hell in the summer with the temperature approaching half boiling point (50
degrees Celsius) and as for the winter the temperature was close to 5 degrees
below zero which led to my suffering from rheumatism and weak bones and pain in
my chest.
The interrogation with me lasted a complete 7 months, I entered on 18-02-03
and left on 14-09-03. I managed one time to see an Islamist leader at night as
the bathroom was outside the cells and each of us would bang on the door for a
guard to open and take us and the guard took this leader and I looked through a
tiny hole in the cell door and saw him.
Seven months passed as if seven years. I experienced pain and torture and
reading papers and magazines was completely prohibited as well as radio and
television or seeing family members, everything was prohibited, an unbearable
hell and I kept myself busy by telling myself that my Italian government would
not let me down and that the Italian ambassador will come and release me by
force for I am an Italian citizen by law and hold an Italian passport, but none
of this happened. During the interrogations, they asked me about some of the
words written in my Italian passport and in the Sigorno and what they meant in
Arabic and they asked about the phone numbers stored on my cell phone and then
they told me that I was going to be moved to another place and they gave me two
papers. One paper stated that I had been well treated and that I was never
tortured and they forced me to sign it under the threat of further torture
until I signed. As for the second paper, it stated that I had no belongings in
their custody, so I refused and told them that I brought with me from Italy a
few items that were on me and I listed them but he said to me that the people
who brought me from Italy stole them and took them and I responded, "The things
are here and they asked me during the interrogations about them," so they
tortured me until I signed that I had no belongings.
I took off the clothes they had dressed me in (the blue clothes) and they gave
me the clothes I had worn coming in from Italy, the clothes that the people who
kidnapped me had dressed me in; a training suit (pajama style) the sleeves were
torn as well as the legs of the pants were cut at the bottom down to the legs.
They then bound my hands behind my back as well as bound my feet and
blindfolded me and then they placed me on a mini-bus and I was very happy as I
imagined that I was returning to my country, Italy, after the intervention of
the Italian government. They asked me, "Do you know where you are going?" I
responded, "To the airport to return to Italy," and they left me and did not
respond. The vehicle drove for approximately half an hour and then it stopped
and they opened the door and ordered me to step down and they took me to a
building and I heard footsteps coming towards me and take me to a room and
suddenly I saw many hands beating me all over my body as well as feet and
curses from many mouths and then they asked me my name and my age and job and
about my family and they told me, "You are now in a place that even blue flies
cannot get to," and they put me in a cell while my hands and feet were still
bound and I was still blindfolded and they warned me against taking off the
blindfold or moving it even a little and they told me that "there is a guard at
the door who will be watching you and if he sees you moving the blindfold you
will undergo a torture campaign."
I asked them about the "Qibla" [direction for prayer] and where the bathroom
was so that I could use and wash for prayer and they said, "You are in a
bathroom," and they moved the blindfold slightly to the top and said, "Look at
this place where you will urinate and defecate," there was an extremely small
hole, "and this is that water that you will use for drinking and for washing
after urinating and defecating," the same water container. The cell had no
electricity and one cannot tell night from day and has no openings for
ventilation and there was one blanket. How can I sleep in a bathroom that
smells so disgustingly rotten, that cattle would be embarrassed to urinate or
defecate in, let alone a human being? The cell was approximately the same size
as the cell in which I stayed for about seven and a half months at the Egyptian
National Security & Intelligence building near the Republican Palace in Hadayek
El Quba. As for this new place, I found out later that it is called the State
Security Apparatus and is in Nasr City in Cairo. And although I do not wish to
recollect this place which every time I remember, I remember what I experienced
in brutal torture and sexual abuse and I am overtaken with [unclear word] and
uncontrollable and continuous weeping. But I will tell of some of what happened
to me there.
1. The size of the cell, as I mentioned is 2 meters long by 1 and half meters
wide. It has no openings whatsoever for ventilation except for an air filter
with a motor that resembles, in sound, the sound of a tank's engine, and there
is one blanket that I sleep on and that is extremely dirty and exudes a
terrible rotting smell. I believe that dozens of other people have slept on it
before me. And the cell is underground where you cannot distinguish between
night and day and the cockroaches and rats and insects walk all over my body
night and day.
2. I didn't know the times for prayer and was not allowed to wash for prayer,
so I would pray in any direction and the beatings and kicking and the electric
baton if the guard opened the door and found me sitting or sleeping, I had to
get up quickly when I heard the key in the cell door, so I would stand up, face
to the wall and my hands lifted high up and would rest on my knees afterwards
and they gave me a number in place of my name, number 27 and it was the same
number on my cell, so he would say, "Hey number 27!" and I would respond and if
I didn't respond, he would brutally beat me. This in regard to the number in
the cell as for when they take me for interrogations, they call me by a woman's
name or by vagina or male or female asshole.
3. The food presented to me is a kind of rotting hard (like stone) bread that
if I eat a piece of, the gums become torn and causes pain to the teeth, the
percentage of dirt in this bread is higher than the percentage of flour, one
must first wet it in water to be able to chew and swallow and they sometimes
present rotten food and very little of it as the policy is to not fulfill the
prisoner and to just keep him barely alive merely bones covered in a little
meat (a skeleton) or (a semi human being).
4. I stayed in this place "State Security Apparatus" for about 7 and a half
months spent in interrogations. And interrogations are held twice a day. The
first is at 11 noon [noon prayers are sometimes performed at 11 a.m.] up to
afternoon prayers approximately (3:30-4:30 pm) and from 9 p.m. until slightly
before dawn. The interrogations are conducted in rooms close to the cells and
the prisoner hears in his cell the screams, the howling and the weeping.
When I was first kidnapped in Italy, I had maybe 4 or 5 white hairs in my head
and in my beard, but after going to Egypt and after the brutal torture the hair
on my head and beard has turned white.
I will try to relay quickly some of what would happen in the interrogation
rooms:
1. In the preliminary times, they would curse Italy and its government for
giving me political asylum and they would say to me, "It is Italy that gave you
to Egypt, and no one will come to rescue you from this torture." And they
ordered me to write a waiver of my political asylum which I obtained in Italy .
2. At the beginning of the interrogation process, the guard opens my cell door
and makes sure to blindfold me tightly and changes the position of my bound
hands to behind my back out of fear that I would remove the blindfold and
witness the officer that is interrogating and torturing me. My feet remain
bound and then I'm dragged to the interrogation rooms. They then remove all my
clothes (naked as the day my mother gave birth to me) and they let me into
where the interrogators are who order them to play with my genitals in order to
humiliate me and then the brutal torture begins and which continues throughout
the time that one spends in this "State Security Apparatus" seven and a half
months.
3. I was hung like slaughtered cattle, head down, feet up, hands tied behind
my back, feet also tied together, and I was exposed to electric shocks all over
my body and especially the head area to weaken the brain and paralyze it and in
the nipples and my genitals and my penis and I was beaten in my genitals with a
stick and they were squeezed if I refused to answer or lied to the
interrogator.
4. I was exposed to all forms of crucifixion. They crucified me on a metal
door, and on a wooden apparatus which they call "El Arousa" or "the bride"
hands up high, behind my back, to the sides as well as the feet tightly
together and spread apart and torture during crucifixion by means of electric
shocks and by being kicked and beaten with electric cables, water hoses and
whipped.
5. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, paper, pen, talking with the
guard and even the Koran are all absolutely prohibited; it would be easier to
ask for my release than to ask for the Koran. I dared once to ask the guard for
the Koran and it turned into a day that was blacker than night; they told me,
"So you can see through your blindfold and you have the strength to hold the
Koran in your hands and you have the patience to bear the pains of torture."
So, they multiplied my torture many times more than what I used to endure and
had they brought me the Koran, I wouldn't have been able to read it for the
room is dark black and you can't see your own hands but I had hoped to kiss the
Koran with my lips and to hug it to my chest even for just a few minutes so
that some of the humiliation and torture and pain that I've been through would
depart from me.
6. They beat me severely on both ears until I lost hearing in one ear.
7. I underwent torture through what they call "the mattress" and it is a
mattress that is placed on the tiled floor of the torture chamber and it is wet
down with water and attached to electricity. My hands were tied behind my back
and so were my feet and someone sat on a wooden chair between my shoulder
blades and another sat on a wooden chair between my legs and the electricity
was switched on and I find myself raised from the strength of the electricity
that is touching the water but the wooden chairs are keeping me from rising
high and then the electricity is switched off and the interrogator tortures me
by electric shocks to my genitals while cursing me and telling, "Let Italy be
of benefit to you."
8. Depriving me of any long periods of sleep and leaving me standing for hours
and not allowing me to bathe except once every 4 months and they left the hair
on my head and beard without cutting it until they released me in April 2004
and returned me to my home and family and I saw myself in the mirror and found
myself resembling Saddam Hussein when they captured him in the famous hole.
9. I was placed near the torture chambers for long periods of time to hear the
screams of the tortured and their moans and their howls so that I would
collapse psychologically and sure enough I experienced episodes of epilepsy and
passing out.
10. I was sexually abused and sodomized twice and this was the worst thing
that I went through for signs of physical torture eventually go away and the
pain goes away but the psychological repercussion and the bitterness and
scandal of sexual violation remain. This sexual violation occurred twice where
my hands were restrained behind my back and so were my feet and they lay me on
my stomach, naked, and someone lay on top of me and began to try to rape me and
I screamed so hard and so loud that I passed out and I don't know whether he
raped me or he was just intimidating and threatening.
11. When they took me to the State Security Prosecution in March and April
2004 they tortured me before going to the prosecutor and they would say,
"Memorize what we say to you to repeat to the chief prosecutor, tell the chief
prosecutor that you came to Egypt of your own free will and that you bought an
Egypt Air ticket and upon descending into the Cairo airport you went to the
security office at the airport and gave them your Italian passport and
explained to them your story and that you want to reside in Egypt. Every time I
returned from the State Security Prosecutor they question me and ask about what
I'd said and they would say to me, "We will know if you are being honest or are
lying." Sure enough I said to the prosecutor what they told me to say and the
prosecutor never asked me why my face was swollen or the reasons behind the
wounds on my face or for the reason for leaving my hair, moustache and beard so
long.
I can no longer continue to write about the conditions of brutal torture that
I experienced. All I care about with regards to my presence at the State
Security Apparatus in Nasr City is death. But there are no means or tools that
I can use to do so, for it is the crime of suicide, but I had lost my mind
after the electric shocks to my brain and head.
I obtained, later in April 2004, a release from the State Security Prosecution
after several interrogations and I was released and they brought me back to the
State Security Prosecutor and some investigators sat with me and told me that I
was going home to my family and siblings but that I should beware of opening my
mouth and telling anything about what had happened to me from my kidnapping in
Italy to my torture in Egypt. And I returned to my home and family in
Alexandria and I stayed with them for approximately 20 days, and during those
days I called my wife and children in Europe as well as my friends and told
them everything in detail beginning with my abduction to my torture in Egypt;
and they arrested me again. I forgot to say that after I was released, I was
transported from the State Security Appartus in Cairo to its branch in
Alexandria where I stayed for about 3 days and where I was met by state
security officers and they gave me what is known as "the Holy Nos" and they
told me, "Don't you dare, don't you dare go against these holy nos:
"1. Do not go the mosques of the Islamic Jama'a and don't pray there.
"2. Do not call Europe at all and do not go to the Italian Embassy or
Consulate.
"3. You are prohibited from any form of travel.
"4. Do not go to human rights groups nor contact them.
"5. Do not speak at mosques or teach.
"6. Do not mention what's happened to you to anyone.
"7. Do not travel outside Alexandria without prior authorization not even to
nearby governorates."