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Egypt kills hundreds of suspected militants in disputed gun battles

CAIRO - Mohamed Abu Amer, a landscape gardener, was working in downtown Cairo when national security agents took him away on Feb. 6, 2018, his family said.

 

For almost six months Amer's family waited for news of the 37-year-old father of two. Their messages to the Public Prosecutor and the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police and the national security agency, went unanswered.

 

Then on July 31, the ministry announced on its Facebook page that Amer was among five terrorists killed in a shootout earlier that day when police approached their hideout 40 km north of Cairo. Amer was wanted for the murder of a national security agent, the statement said.

 

It's a version of events his family doesn't buy. Amer was no terrorist and he died in the custody of the state, not in a gun battle, his relatives insist. "I know that what they are saying is untrue," said a relative. "He was with them for six months."

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.05.19, 14:33