The Washington Post's editorial on Egypt Today, entitled "Brutal retaliation against activists, could fuel the return of Islamists." The newspaper spoke of one such activist, Israa Abdel Fattah, who was a prominent supporter of the 2013 military coup that brought Abdel Fattah El Sisi to power.

She was one of the leading figures in the popular revolution during the Arab Spring of 2011, and like many secular liberals turned against the elected government of the late President Mohamed Morsi, believing she was trying to install an Islamic dictator. Accordingly, she placed her trust in Sisi's claims to restore democracy.

But she is now in prison and tortured after she was kidnapped - as her lawyer says - from her car on the outskirts of Cairo by plainclothes security officers last Saturday who drove her to an unknown place of detention where she was severely beaten and suffocated by her sports jacket, which she wore until she lost consciousness. She was then forced to stand for about eight hours with her hands tied over her head before tying her to a column.

Esraa is one of a group of Egyptian activists, journalists and intellectuals who have backed Sisi against the Muslim Brotherhood only to find themselves targets of the so-called "oppressive dictatorship in Egypt's modern history", many of whom have been imprisoned or forced into exile in recent years.

She added that since the sudden mass protests against the government on September 20, a number of those who remained and imprisoned even though they had nothing to do with the new protests, such as lawyer Mahinor al-Masri, political activist and journalist Khaled Daoud, and journalist Mustafa al-Khatib and Israa herself, who have now spent most of the period, have been kidnapped. Sisi ruled behind bars.

They are not supporters of the Sisi Brotherhood and have persuaded its Western backers - including President Donald Trump - of the need for his harsh rule.

She also said that these are the Egyptians who aspire to build a democratic system in the most populous Arab countries, based on freedom of expression, assembly and free and fair elections. They were so opposed to Islamic rule that some welcomed military intervention to prevent it.

By exposing them to imprisonment, torture and exile, Sisi not only demonstrates the weakness of his regime, which has been alarmed by a modest wave of protests, but also ensures that the only alternative to military rule in Egypt will be Islamist.

She concluded that this is a result that is completely contrary to American interests, and a result supported by the Trump administration with more than one billion dollars of annual military aid to Cairo.