They are actually the same person, before and after torture.

His name was Moataz Mostafa Hassan Kamel Abdullah, an engineering student at Alexandria University. He was the only son of a retired father and a mother suffering from various illnesses. He also had a younger sister.

Moataz was known to his neighbors and friends as a friendly, helpful, and outstanding young man.

On April 22, 2018, Egyptian security personnel arrested him at his home in the King Mariout area of Al-Amiriya, Alexandria.

He was forcibly disappeared for more than two months.

On June 28, 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced that four people had been killed during an armed raid on what it described as a “terrorist hideout” in Asyut Governorate.

The ministry accused those involved of belonging to the Hasm movement and involvement in the March 24, 2018, bombing targeting the convoy of Alexandria’s security director.

The ministry also announced the arrest of Moataz Mostafa Hassan Kamel Abdullah.

During his detention, Moataz was ordered to confess to involvement in the assassination attempt against Alexandria’s security director.

When he refused, he was subjected to severe beatings, suspended by his legs, and had his teeth pulled out.

Egyptian authorities also arrested his father, mother, sister, and uncle. They threatened to rape his mother and sister and torture his father and uncle unless he confessed.

After the torture and threats, Moataz was forced to confess.

He attempted to prove that he had been tortured before prosecutors and later in court before Judge Mohamed Sherin Fahmy.

The Cairo Criminal Court referred his case, alongside those of Ahmed Abdel-Majid, the tenth defendant, and Mustafa Mahmoud, the eleventh defendant, to Egypt’s Grand Mufti for consideration of the death penalty.

The court scheduled March 31 to deliver its verdict on all 11 defendants in the case concerning the attempted assassination of Alexandria’s former security director.

Moataz was sentenced to death, and his appeal was rejected.

On July 4, 2021, Egyptian authorities executed Moataz.

The Najda Organization for Human Rights documented his arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, and torture.

Moataz was finally freed from torture, threats, and injustice.

Source: Egyptian alternative media.