CAIRO: Egypt’s official State Information Service responded on Tuesday to a recent BBC report on the country’s human rights conditions and alleged torture, calling the report “lies and allegations.”
It has summoned the head of the BBC’s office in Egypt to receive an official letter of response on the report.
It blasted the report as “replete with contradictions as it clearly shows the author’s bias to portray an offensive image of the conditions in Egypt,” according to reports in Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The BBC published a 5,000-word article and video report on Friday called the “The Shadow over Egypt” on the topic of 'enforced disappearances'. It included interviews with families of alleged victims of torture and abductions by security officials.
A young Egyptian woman -- Zubeida Ibrahim Younis -- was mentioned in the BBC report, which suggested she had been "forcibly disappeared." But she later made a TV appearance on Monday refuting the claims.
Younis appeared on a popular local talk show explaining that she had been detained during a protest and later released, but was never tortured or abducted.
The BBC report showed photos and a video of her mother saying that Younis had been abducted.
However, Younis refuted her mother’s testimony in the BBC report, saying that she does not speak with her "due to [personal] circumstances".
"I got married, and I'm staying with my husband in Giza's Faisal, I don't speak with her," she told the talk show.
Egypt angered by BBC report on 'enforced disappearances'
Egypt angered by BBC report on 'enforced disappearances'
