Alaa detained for 15 days “pending investigation” · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Today, the Egyptian blogsphere is loaded with anger and appeals for urgent actions. All what you need to know to feel the pulse is watching the Egyptian Blogs Aggregator (maintained by Alaa). The story of his arrest is in the headlines across the blogsphere as well as some news websites beyond the Egyptian borders.
Following is a summery and updates from around the blogsphere:
Alaa's wife, Manal reports that Alaa and the other arrested activist are now detained for 15 days:
Alaa and the rest of the group that was kidnapped yesterday, will be detained for 15 days. They didnt go directly to the prison as we thought, but spent the night at the Khalifa's police station and are supposed to be transferred to the prisons now. The 3 women will go to El Qanater prison, as Tora prison where the rest of the 40 detainees are held has no section for women, and the men are supposed to join the rest and go to Tora prison, but some think that they will also taken to El Qanater prison (which has sections for both men and women).
Sandmonkey also confirms the 15 days detention “pending investigation”, which could be renewed indefinitely. What he is afraid of is what could follow inside the infamous prison:
Him and the men were sent to the infamous Torah Prison and the girls to the Qanatir prison for the duration. This makes them hardly safe, because stuff that goes on in egyptian prisons on the hands of the jailors: beatings, sexual assaults, torture of all kinds. This is why we aim to get them out of there as soon as possible, so that even if they do end up serving the entire 15 days- which they won't have to if the government gets pressured- they ndon;t end up serving an extra day after that. No one deserves this happening to them, especially for exercising their right to free speech.
However, there seems to be another15 day’s detention, but a renewal 15 days detention for the first arrested group. Tomanbay says:
Arrest period was extended for the protestors detained on April 24th, for 15 more days. Mind you, this is an ad-hoc arrest, no subpoena, or court orders issued. This brings the period they're spending in prison, without facing charges, to 30 days.
Salma confirms that this 15 days-extension for the first arrested group. However the other alarming part is the condition of the detainees:
Faisal also confirms the reports of mistreatment.
Nermeena describe what is happening as a “crisis. She says:
Talk about freedom & Democracy Till now…..48 detained, among them 6 bloggers, and 3 ladies!!
In his last night post, The Skeptic fears are coming true:
When I first met Alaa in the summer of 2005, I told him I was worried the government would crack down on the Kifaya protesters after the elections, when the world’s attention was elsewhere. I asked him if he was worried about what would happen if that came to pass: Many of the protesters were young, they had never been in jail, they didn’t know what could happen to them. He said he believed that it was too late for the government to put an end to the protests, that once people had tasted a bit of freedom, the regime couldn’t roll it back.
“The government would pay a heavy price if it clamps down on us,” Alaa’s father told the BBC’s Heba Saleh last year. The coming days and weeks will see both those predictions tested.
Yasmina, as many other bloggers are calling for help:
GO TO SANDMONKEY’S SITE AND HELP ALAA AND OTHERS THAT WERE ARESSTED . We need to show our support no matter whare you are. I sent two emails and made my brother send one. Just help cause people don't really know what kind of abuse our great Egyptian cops put people through.
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Freedom for Egyptians blog is reporting that Human Rights Watch Responds to Egypt's Regime Mass Detentions:
Human Rights Watch has said the Egyptian government should immediately release scores of peaceful protesters arrested over the past 10 days solely for exercising their right to free expression and assembly.