Now Celebrations In Egypt Five Years After Tahrir
LU STOUT: Now, for nearly two years boats dragging high tech detection devices across the Indian Ocean have failed to find any trace of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. And on Sunday, one of these sonar vehicles searching the ocean floor was lost after colliding with an underwater volcano. Now the vehicle is called a toefish was being pulled by this search vessel, the Fugro Discovery (ph). Now Australia's transport and safety bureau says the Fugro Discovery (ph) won't be able to resume search operations for another 12 days. No, it has been five years since the Arab Spring uprising spread into Egypt. But there won't be any celebrating in Cairo's Tahrir square. Ian Lee reports on the aftermath of the uprising and the dashed dreams of millions of Egyptians.</s>IAN LEE, CNN INTERNAITONAL CORRESPONDENT: Arab leaders quaked at the sight of Tahrir. Millions of Egyptians took to the square, a force for change demanding a better life. That was 18 days in 2011. The masses returned to do it again in 2013. Shortly after the new government cracked down, police arrested Yousef during a protest, charged with threatening national security, he says. We are concealing the university student's identity. He is afraid for his safety.</s>YOUSEF, TORTURE VICTIM (through transaltor): They electrocuted me with two wires to the chest and the back. I was screaming in pain. My torturer said the electricity was weak. Plug it into is the AC. The shock sent me and two guys holding me back a few meters.</s>LEE: Yousef languished in prison for over a year. How did you deal with the torture?</s>YOUSEF (through translator): I cried hard. I felt extremely weak, impotent and crushed. I broke a piece of glass and felt that I wanted to end all of this. I wanted to die.</s>LEE: CNN can't independently verify Yousef's story, but Egyptian human rights lawyers say his it is not unique.</s>RAGIA OMRAN, NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: The use of extreme force, violence, torture violations in prisons and especially in police stations. It has gone up on the rise.</s>LEE: One report detailed police abuse in 2015. In it, nearly 500 people died in police custody, 700 cases of torture were documented. In the lead up to the anniversary of the revolution, activists tell us the government is cracking down on any perceived threats, including making arrests as well as raiding cultural centers and private homes.</s>TIMOTHY KALDAS, TAHRIR INSTITUTE FOR MIDDLE EAST POLICY: There is a message to anybody that would consider protesting, that it won't be tolerated this time around.</s>LEE: Egypt minister of interior defended his tactics as legal on state</s>TV. MAGDY ABDEL GHAFFAR, EGYPTIAN INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): Questions are being raised now about some practices that violate human rights. Well, they are necessary because of the reality we live in. We are facing a ferocious wave of terrorism that Egypt hasn't witnessed in modern history.</s>LEE: Among the wave of terrorism, ISIS in Egypt has killed over 1,000 people, including hundreds of civilians. But Yousef sees the government's tactics at counter productive. The government gives the terrorist organizations a kiss of life. The youth join these groups as a result of the government's oppression and terror. They don't give the young people a way to vent their anger.</s>LEE: Five years on, for many the hope of Tahrir has been replaced by despair. Ian Lee, CNN, Ciaro.</s>LU STOUT: And that is News Stream. END END