Mohamed Nabil El-Gendi
Mohamed Nabil El-Gendi was from Tanta city. Known for his political activism since the inception of the revolution and after the revolution, he joined the Popular Current Movement and worked as a member of its executive office.
After obtaining his high school degree he went on to study medicine, but he dropped out and decided to study tourism and hotels of Alexandria due to his love for travel. After he had graduated, he studied at the American University. According to his mother, he was fluent in 3 languages and traveled to many countries.
He was his parent’s only son. He had a sister who works as a doctor. He was not political before the revolution but actively participated in the January 25th revolution. His mother says he was trying to establish a new tourism company in Cairo 2 years after the revolution, refusing a tempting work offer abroad saying: “I won’t leave the cause of my country and go abroad. Ever.”
Mohamed El-Gendi traveled from Alexandria to Cairo to celebrate the second anniversary of the revolution. He disappeared on the evening of the 25th of January 2013. His family knew nothing and his mother phoned all of his acquaintances, but no one knew anything. She went outside panicking and looking for him in all the hospitals until a person had called her to tell her that police forces arrested Mohamed. He among others were detained in Camp Red Mountain—a military base belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs—and that he was being tortured because of his political activism.
His mother sent a plea to the public prosecutor but didn’t receive any response. She went the Central Security Camp at Gabal Akhar area to only to be met by a denial from the officers and soldiers of his existence there. She didn’t give up or leave instead she remained within the vicinity of the camp. When she found the deportation cars leaving the camp she followed them. She asked who was let go and asked about Mohamed, showing his photo. They confirmed that he was in there and that he was being tortured.
Mohamed’s family attempted to bring him out of the camp. His mother asked for mediation by some political figures, like the head of the Popular Current Movement and the former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy, but none of their attempts succeeded in rescuing him.
He was later found on the roadside unconscious on the morning of Monday the 28th of January. He was moved to Al-Hilal Hospital with bruises and fractures covering his body, only to die a week later on the 4th of February.