Egyptian State Security Investigation (SSI) forces arrested eight students on 28 October 2009 on accusations of membership to the Muslim Brotherhood - they were held for three days incommunicado at Zagaziq Police Station and then transferred on 30 October 2009 to Damanhour prison. During the students three days incommunicado detention at Zagaziq Police, they were exposed to ill-treatment and subjected to insults and beatings at the hands of the SSI.

In the past 3 months, the Egyptian government has carried out successive mass arrests of leading members of the country's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, including Dr Ashraff Abdel Ghaffar and Dr Ahmed Heshmat. Alkarama has been following these cases and, on 27 October 2009, submitted 112 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention of the Muslim Brotherhoods leaders and followers to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD).

Alkarama has received news of two separate new waves of arrests in Daqahliyah governorate. These arrests occur in the context of hundreds of arrests over the past few months which mainly target members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Alkarama has submitted the case of Mr Youssef Hamdane Awad (Abu Zahri) to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions and the Special Rapporteur on Torture. Mr Youssef Abu Zahri, the brother of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri, was arrested by Egyptian State Security Intelligence (SSI) on 28 April 2008, detained for 7 months in various Egyptian jails and regularly tortured by the SSI. He died on 10 October 2009.