fanatical Islamist family, who beat her before driving her away, a well-informed Christian news agency reported.
Compass Direct News quoted eyewitnesses as saying that family members of Shaymaa (Eman)
Muhammad al-Sayed, 26, "dragged her screaming from the Bab-Sharky police station where she had been" held in custody.
After "severely beating her" in the Shatby Cemetery behind the police station at 4 p.m. local time, she was then forced into a family microbus and driven away, eyewitnesses reportedly said.
One week ago, on July 16, the same family members openly threatened to kill Al-Sayed for leaving Islam to become a Christian, after spotting her walking through a fair in Alexandria, Compass Direct News added.
POLICE TORTURE
Local police reportedly took her into "protective custody," but instead police and State Security Investigation (SSI) officials subjected her to days of "severe physical and emotional torture," the news agency said.
Her maltreatment allegedly included electrical shocks, beatings and being photographed naked. Her repeated requests to press charges against her family for attempting to kidnap and kill her were ignored.
In published remarks, Egyptian convert Rasha Noor said she wasn’t surprised about the police treatment. "The Christians from a Muslim background can’t change their identities, so they are always pushed by the authorities to return back to Islam – or else."
Police officials were not immediately available for comment. The Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak has said it will not tolerate Muslim extremism, but human rights groups say Christian converts are often the target of violent attacks.
