When the Egyptian foreign minister met with US secretary of state John Kerry he said no journalists were imprisoned in Egypt because of their reporting, but the family of 27-year-old Mahmoud Abou Zeid would beg to differ.
Mohammad Abou Zeid looks like a defeated man. He has spent the past two years fighting to free his little brother from jail.
“Many of my friends tried to tell him not to go out because we were worried about him. He insisted to go practice the profession he loved,” Mohammad told the ABC.
Mohammad’s brother, known to all his friends and family by his nickname Shawkan, lived and breathed for his photography.
They started to beat me using a belt, closed fists and kicks with their boots on. They beat me over and over again. Five officers beat me at the same time.
Shawkan
A sometime contributor to Time Magazine and other international outlets, Shawkan went out daily onto the streets of the new Egypt to capture the revolution and the ensuing chaos.
“He was very focused to the point where he used to come home only once every three or four days,” Mohammad said.
“I’d ask him where he’s been and then I’d look at his camera and find out that he has covered events here and there. He loved photography. It was his whole life.”
In August 2013, Shawkan was covering the Muslim brotherhood demonstrations against the removal of then president Mohammed Morsi.
A violent raid by the military on their protest camp at Rabba Square in Cairo saw about 1,000 brotherhood supporters killed. Mohammad received a short call from his brother saying he was being held.
“With my brother there were two other journalists: an American and a French journalist. They released the other two journalists and kept my brother,” Mohammad said.
“The second call I got from him was three weeks later. Then, I was told he was in Abu Zaabal prison.”
In visits to his brother inside prison, Mohammad heard detailed descriptions of the torture Shawkan said he had been subjected too.
It is something he struggles to talk about.
“He was subjected to torture in every prison and every police station he was moved to,” he said.
It is an experience Shawkan has written about in letters smuggled out from prison.
“They started to beat me using a belt, closed fists and kicks with their boots on. They beat me over and over again. Five officers beat me at the same time,” he wrote.
“I dropped to the floor and they did not stop. They used a metal belt buckle to beat me on my face and back. I tried to close my eyes but they hit them with the metal belt buckle.”
For most of the past two years, Shawkan has shared a tiny cell in Cairo’s notorious Tora prison with 12 other political prisoners.
“The black box he’s living in is very tragic. This cell he is in is only three to four metres long. And of course the bathroom is inside it,” Mohammad described.
“There is no medical care, no taking care of the food, drinks and all that sort of thing. The room he is in, if you were to leave your dog in it, the dog won’t stay in it.”
The Cairo Criminal Court said Shawkan was accused of murder and carrying weapons, but Mohammad said after two years of detention his brother still had not been charged.
“We submit appeals, no-one listens or looks at the case or even takes you seriously. Every 45 days they renew his arrest,” he said.
“Even the decision to renew the arrest period is announced before the session takes place.”
Shawkan shouldn’t be in prison: Amnesty International
Nicholas Piachaud, one of Amnesty International’s lead researchers on Egypt, said Shawkan’s “crime” seemed to have been taking photos.
“It’s very clear Shawkan shouldn’t be in prison,” Mr Piachaud told the ABC.
“He is among the many journalists detained in Egypt today simply for telling a side of the story that the Egypt government doesn’t want us to hear. We are calling on his immediate and unconditional release.”
The human rights campaigner was disappointed by the US secretary of state’s visit to Cairo at the weekend and the resumption of more than $1 billion of worth of American military aid to its Egyptian counterparts.
“What we are calling on the US and the rest of the international community to do is to stop these mixed messages,” Mr Piachaud said.
“What’s needed from the international community is courage. To stand up to Egypt — the bully in the playground — and say ‘what you’re doing is wrong’.”
Mohammad has no-one to appeal to about his brother’s case. No police station, court system or government body that will help him.
“We have run out of options,” Mohammad said.
“We tried everything. We are looking for anything else that we can do. God is our last refuge.”
