Confrontations started again yesterday between the Ministry of Interior and the family of detained Quranist Reda Abdel-Rahman. Reda Abdel-Rahman's family filed a complaint yesterday to the Prosecutor General against the Interior Ministry represented in the State Security Investigations Apparatus because they detain their son without legal basis. The complaint was also against state security officer Ahmed Khedr asking that he be interrogated with relation to the incident of beating, humiliating and insulting Abdel-Rahman's mother and two sisters Heba and Azza.

The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by Al-Dustour, states that a State Security Investigations force detained Reda Abdel-Rahman on 27 October 2008, searched his home and confiscated a computer and a number of books claiming that Abdel-Rahman did not believe in Islam the way chosen for him by the state security investigations personnel and that he believes in Quranist ideas. He was taken to an undisclosed location.



The complaint called for obliging the Interior Ministry to declared the location where Abdel-Rahman is detained and the correct legal reasons, that do not violate the Constitution, that have called for his detention, as well as allowing his parents and his lawyer to visit him. The complaint also called for invoking Article 22 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, asking to file a disciplinary lawsuit against all those involved in breaking the law.



Some female members of Reda Abdel-Rahman's family tried to organize a protest in front of the Supreme Court but a security force headed by a police general prevented them and turned them away. They headed to the opposite side of the road. When passersby gathered around them the general asked to stand by the Court then surrounded them.



The demonstrators carried signs reading "No to conscience detention!", "Was Reda tortured to death?", and "Ideas should be responded to by ideas. Reda Abdel-Rahman's family shouted accusations against Sheikh al-Azhar and Al-Azhar establishment for being behind the persecution of Quranists in general.



For his part, Abdel-Rahman's lawyer from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Adel Rafie affimed that the Interior Ministry resorted to detaining Reda Abdel-Rahman to avoid referring him to prosecution as the latter would have ordered his release. He added that through the detention order the Interior Ministry decided to impose punishment itself thus ignoring prosecution. He explained that this will result to Abdel-Rahman's disappearance for a period up to four months without any information about him.