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“Coptic Family Forced to Surrender Woman Rescued in Egypt”
by Compass Direct News   
October 10th, 2009

ISTANBUL, October 9  State Security Investigations (SSI) forces in Egypt arrested, abused and then extorted money from a Coptic Christian for rescuing his daughter from her Muslim husband, who was holding her against her will in Alexandria, according to sources in Egypt. Security forces also arrested 10 people in Alexandria and tortured them in an attempt to find all those involved in the rescue. Authorities are preparing to make a new wave of arrests, the sources said. On Sept. 30, they said, the only daughter of Gamal Labib Hanna called home and asked her family to save her from her Muslim husband. How Hanna’s daughter, Myrna Gamal Hanna, came to marry Mohamad Osama Hefnawy is disputed, but sources said the now-20-year-old woman was 19 and under the age of marital consent when she and Hefnawy were wed 10 months ago. After the rescue, Hefnawy and his neighbors filed a report with local police and the SSI. Soon after, Hannas brothers, one brother-in-law and his mother-in-law were rounded up, charged with abduction and detained. According to sources in Egypt, at least one of the family members was tortured until Hanna turned himself in. Sources said security forces pressured Hanna until he agreed not only to hand his daughter back to Hefnawy but also to give him several thousand dollars. “Cases like this are very common, they happen every day,” said Rasha Noor, an Egyptian human rights activist and journalist living outside of Egypt. “Thats usually what happens when families try to rescue daughters from their kidnappers.”

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