Reuters quoted lawyers as saying that the Egyptian security forces raided the homes of two uncles of the Egyptian-American activist Mohamed Sultan, who recently filed a lawsuit in the United States against Egyptian officials - including President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi - in a torture case.
The agency said that the Egyptian State Information Service, which manages relations with foreign media, had not responded to its request for comment.
Sultan confirmed on Twitter, the Egyptian security raid on the family’s home in Menoufia, north of Cairo, midnight, and said that he had submitted a memo detailing that raid to the Federal Court in Washington, and saw that “the state’s attempt to discourage me from my legal right to hold accountable of my torture and injustice, through my family, a crime ".
I presented a memorandum to the Federal Court in Washington detailing the Egyptian security raid on the family’s home in the Menoufia Governorate at midnight.
The state's attempt to dissuade me from my legal right to hold those who tortured and wronged me through my family a crime
I appeal to the wise people that the state not get involved too much in a case it is not a party to. # PossibleTo Account pic.twitter.com/SEgunIuUNv
- Mohamed Soltan Muhammad Sultan (@soltanlife) June 12, 2020
Security forces visited the house of Muhammad Sultan's uncles and searched two houses of his uncles in the Barakat al-Sabe 'Center in Menoufia. And that was after several days after a civil case was filed in America against Hazem al-Beblawy. Again: If Sultan pursues the judiciary, why do you use gang behavior? What is his family’s income? Https://t.co/wlcMqvQCfu pic.twitter.com/wz9dnRFYgC
- Amr Magdi (@ganobi) June 11, 2020
Acknowledgment of guilt is a virtue ...
Egyptian police raided the homes of relatives of @soltanlife to force him to withdraw the case he brought in Washington regarding his torture, on the orders of al-Beblawi, al-Sisi, Muhammad Ibrahim, Abbas Kamel, and others.
This concrete evidence supports the case, and another crime aimed at obstructing justice https://t.co/KRRi6PMGHX
- Bahey eldin Hassan (@BaheyHassan) June 11, 2020
Sultan, 32, had filed a lawsuit with a court in the District of Columbia in the US capital earlier this month, targeting Hazem al-Beblawi as the first accused as someone who directed his ill-treatment while he was the prime minister, but it also includes the current president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and his former director, Abbas Kamel, who He currently heads the General Intelligence Service, and three former leaders of the Ministry of Interior.
In the lawsuit, the Egyptian-American activist demands that they be pursued if they enter the United States. The 46-page lawsuit is based on a law passed in 1991 in the United States that allows torture survivors to prosecute their torturers for compensation for the harm they suffered.
Sultan, who is the son of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Salah Sultan, said that he was beaten and tortured during his 643-day detention in Egypt following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
And the newspaper "Washington Post" made it clear in a report published about the Sultan's case that foreign leaders are mostly immune from civil suits in the United States.
However, she noted that the Torture Victims Protection Act allows for cases against those involved in torture anywhere in the world to be brought if they are in the United States and are no longer in power in their countries.
It is noteworthy that Hazem El-Beblawy is currently residing in the United States.