Interior Ministry headquarter (Reuters)
Some of the young Egyptian activists reported by their families to have disappeared have in fact joined terror groups, a high level Egyptian interior ministry official said on Friday.
Reports of forced disappearances of young activists by the security services have been circulating in the Egyptian media for several months.
The National Council for Human Rights, an official body, has formally requested any available information about the whereabouts of 191 people who have disappeared from the interior ministry.
Speaking on CBC Extra channel by phone, Major General Abo-Bakr Abdel-Karim, assistant interior minister for public relations and media said that "some of the missing youth who have been reported disappeared by their families have joined terrorist organisations."
Abdel-Karim said that information has been sent to the council regarding 118 people who were initially suspected to be victims of forced disappearance.
Early in January, the interior ministry said that out of 191 names sent by the NCHR, 83 were awaiting trial, including 10 who had been released and two who were wanted by authorities pending trial and were at large. An additional 16 were temporarily detained pending further investigation.
The ministry has said several times during the past weeks that no forced disappearance cases have ever been recorded in Egypt.
Freedom of the Brave, a grassroots campaign calling for the release of all detained activists, has reported the disappearance of many activists, including recently an activist known as Mostafa Massouny.
The interior ministry official denied that Massouny was arrested "by the police or any affiliated security apparatuses."
Abdel-Karim said that the interior ministry is committed to examining the rest of the names sent by the council at the soonest possible time.
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