Hamada Elrasam
Photographer
Visual Storyteller

Every year activists mark the death of Hisham Rizk by showing his graffiti art in a Cairo exhibit. The artist was found dead in the Nile river in July 2014 after posting on Facebook: “I’ll keep painting, and if I ran out of colors, I’ll paint with my blood. I feel honored to belong to this struggling community of activists,” Cairo, Egypt, July 19, 2017. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

Ramy M. Abdul, a forensic doctor who worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Health when the men died, also says the crime scene does not support the government’s assertion that the men were killed during a fight. “It seems that both of the bodies have been shot in the back,” he says. Additionally he says the position of the guns in the two published photos are different, pointing to the possibility of planted evidence. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam) May, 2015 in Giza, Egypt.

In May 2015, Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm published these images from the Ministry of Interior which said the two men were terrorist suspects killed while attempting to kill a judge. Ahmed Hassan Abdullatife and Saeed Said Ahmed were reported missing by their families a few days prior to their deaths. Activists say the pictures of the crime scene are inconsistent with the government’s version of events. Photo of image taken May 2015 in Cairo. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

Nour Khalil, a human rights activist and a law student, says as many as 80 heavily armed soldiers stormed his home in May 2015. “About 10 soldiers, their faces covered with masks, pointed their guns at my face,” he says. “They woke me up and pulled a black cloth over my eyes and put me in their vehicle with my father and brother. I was detained for four days, my father for 15, and my brother was released after 122 days,” Giza, Egypt, July 16, 2017. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

On the left, Nour Khalil says, “Since I came out of jail it has been not easy to socialize. I have become more careful when I leave my home. I always tell someone I know where I’m going in case something happens. Forced disappearance is very scary. Officially you don’t exist.” On the right, Khalil views an Amnesty International report about his family’s arrest. “One of the most effective ways to fight forced disappearance is to keep talking about it,” he says on August 28, 2017. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

Islam Khalil, Nour’s brother, was held without charges for 122 days. “The officers tied cloths over our eyes and called us by number instead of by name.” While in jail, Islam Khalil took names and other details of other prisoners who said they were arrested and their families never informed. As he left, one prisoner touched him in a gesture Islam Khalil understood to mean, “Don’t forget us.” (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

Bakr Atef, a university student, says his father and his brother were arrested in July, 2015. Both are still in jail on charges of a crime that took place in August of 2015, a month after the men were already in custody. Both father and son had, however, participated in anti-government protests the previous year. Atef says: “More than a hundred special soldiers, heavily armed, masked and dressed in camouflage uniforms, stormed our house. They took about 280,000 Egyptian pounds from the house and brought me, my father and six of my brothers downstairs and covered our eyes and tied our hands behind our backs. They pointed a gun at each of us and asked who among us was the most religious. My brother Yahia said he prayed at the mosque and they arrested him. I yelled, ‘You can’t arrest him. We have cameras and recording devices!’ They confiscated the equipment before they took my brother away.” Aug. 29, 2017. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

On the left, Bakr Atef shows a picture of his father and brother with an official arrest document in the background. “I told prosecutors that they stole money from our house and kidnapped my father and my brother. Police officials showed us a document that accuses them of taking part in Islamic State activities in August 2015, after they were detained." On the right, Atef in his father’s store. “I’m now responsible here. It is our only income.” Taken in Cairo, on August 29, 2017. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

Political activist and law student Tarek Mohamed Hussain, Also known as ‘Tito’, he tweets while he is waiting for his brother’ trial in September of 2014. His brother, Mahmoud Mohamed, then 17, was arrested after wearing a tee-shirt that said, “Homeland without Torture!” in Arabic about 200 days before the hearing. The family accuses authorities of deliberately delaying the procedures to keep Mohamed behind bars. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

On the left, Nour Khalil says, “Since I came out of jail it has been not easy to socialize. I have become more careful when I leave my home. I always tell someone I know where I’m going in case something happens. Forced disappearance is very scary. Officially you don’t exist.” On the right, Islam Khalil views an Amnesty International report about his family’s arrest. “One of the most effective ways to fight forced disappearance is to keep talking about it,” he says on August 28, 2017. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)

An Egyptian woman cleans in front of her house in Giza, Egypt on May 18, 2015 after what authorities said was a fight between the police and two suspected terrorists. The suspects were killed but analysts say there was no evidence of a battle on the streets. (Photo/Hamada Elrasam)