Philip Rizk and Diaa Eddin Gad

Original Report

State security came for Philip Rizk, 27, on Friday night. He had just finished a six-mile protest walk with about 15 friends to raise support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip when he was detained for hours and then hustled into an unmarked van and driven off. He has not been seen or heard from since.

For two days the authorities denied that he was being held. Then on Sunday, at 10 p.m., a security official at the American University in Cairo, where Mr. Rizk studies, was able to confirm his arrest to his family. His mother and father tried to get some sleep, but at 1 a.m., security agents showed up at their door, five plainclothesmen and two guards carrying automatic weapons.

After searching their apartment, the security agents tried to take his father, Magid, away, too. He refused to go, and the authorities backed off when representatives of the German Embassy and Amnesty International arrived in the middle of the night. Philip Rizk’s mother, Judith, is German, and he has dual Egyptian-German citizenship.

He has been released four days after his arrest.

Gad, a blogger, was taken the same time as Philip and he remains in custody.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/world/middleeast/10egypt.html?fta=y; amnesty International
Photo credit: Christine Rizk, http://philiprizk.org/

For Diaa Gad: http://soutgadeb.blogspot.com/

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