Cairo - Egypt's public prosecutor on Thursday decided to open an investigation into accusations that a state
security officer tortured a supporter of former UN
nuclear chief Mohammed ElBaradei, judicial sources said. The public prosecutor's decision to call in the officer from Egypt's domestic intelligence agency followed a strong statement of protest from ElBaradei, whose return to Egypt late last month and campaign for political reform has energised the country's opposition.
Taha Abdel-Tawab was detained on Sunday and badly beaten by officers from the Egyptian Interior Ministry's State Security Investigations service, after trying to organise a rally in
support of an ElBaradei presidential bid, his lawyer alleged.
The officer accused by Abdel-Tawab, a doctor from the Egyptian oasis of al-Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, will face questioning on Saturday, judicial sources told the German Press Agency dpa.
ElBaradei had condemned "the barbaric assault on this innocent citizen," in a statement from the coalition of opposition groups he formed late last month to campaign for political reforms in Egypt.
Abdel-Tawab, who is in
hospital in al-Fayoum, had started a hunger strike to call for the officer's prosecution.
Upon hearing of the public prosecutor's decision, he ended it, said opposition politician Gamila Ismail, who had visited Abdel-Tawab in hospital to express her solidarity with him.
Thousands of supporters greeted ElBaradei at the
airport on his return to Egypt last month and called on him to run for president in the 2011 elections.
Following 2007 amendments to the constitution, ElBaradei, as an independent, could run only with the support of 250 elected national and local officials.
Since the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) dominates Egypt's national and local assemblies, it is unlikely he could secure a nomination without the NDP's blessing.
The coalition of opposition groups that formed around ElBaradei last month called on the government to institute seven reforms that the coalition said would provide for more free elections.
