Ahed al-Hendi:
'Twenty year-old Syrian activist, Hadeel Kouki, was beaten at her apartment yesterday by three men shortly after she received a piece of paper signed by Bashad Assad's thugs in Cairo. According to the medical report, signed by the doctor who examined her, she had bruises and wounds on her legs, arms, back, and face.
The police did not manage to find the aggressors yet, but according to Hadeel, that two of them had Egyptian accents and the other was Syrian. "They beat me and were screaming 'You are traitor!' Then one of them took the Syrian revolution flag that I have at my apartment and trampled it," she told me over the phone.
Kouki was jailed in Syria three times for nearly 52 days. Even after her release, Kouky was wanted by Syrian intelligence for her role in transporting medical aid to injured protesters in Idlib. Kouki's friends advised her to leave the country, so she was smuggled to Turkey and later to France to attend a conference on Syria. Kouki now lives in Egypt and she is one of the few young Christian actvisits who isn't afraid to speak out against Bashar Assad.
Yesterday, Kouki called me in a panic and crying. She didn't know what to do. She locked the house and blocked her door.
Twenty minutes before she was beaten she received a message under her door that said: "We are going to displine you like dogs, you traitor, even if you hide on Mars, Assad's Shabiha will get you. We know all of your activities and we got the green light from your relatives. Your beautiful face will be burned by acid."
Hadeel's life is in grave danger. Assad's agents have the ability in Egypt to hurt her just as they did with the wife of a Syrian activist who was kidnaped recently in Egypt and later found on the street.
Assad's regime might target Hadeel for many reasons. In addtion to her role in helping protesters on the ground, Hadeel's background as a Christian might harm Assad's lie of trying portray the uprising as a conflict between armed Islamic gangs and a secular regime. Assad is working hard to silence any Christian voices against him.
The neighboorhood where Hadeel lives in Cairo houses lot of Syrian embassy employees. This is known by their thuggish behaviour on March 17, while Syrian activists were protesting in front of the Syrian embassy in Cairo, a group of employees attacked and beat them.'
The police did not manage to find the aggressors yet, but according to Hadeel, that two of them had Egyptian accents and the other was Syrian. "They beat me and were screaming 'You are traitor!' Then one of them took the Syrian revolution flag that I have at my apartment and trampled it," she told me over the phone.
Kouki was jailed in Syria three times for nearly 52 days. Even after her release, Kouky was wanted by Syrian intelligence for her role in transporting medical aid to injured protesters in Idlib. Kouki's friends advised her to leave the country, so she was smuggled to Turkey and later to France to attend a conference on Syria. Kouki now lives in Egypt and she is one of the few young Christian actvisits who isn't afraid to speak out against Bashar Assad.
Yesterday, Kouki called me in a panic and crying. She didn't know what to do. She locked the house and blocked her door.
Twenty minutes before she was beaten she received a message under her door that said: "We are going to displine you like dogs, you traitor, even if you hide on Mars, Assad's Shabiha will get you. We know all of your activities and we got the green light from your relatives. Your beautiful face will be burned by acid."
Hadeel's life is in grave danger. Assad's agents have the ability in Egypt to hurt her just as they did with the wife of a Syrian activist who was kidnaped recently in Egypt and later found on the street.
Assad's regime might target Hadeel for many reasons. In addtion to her role in helping protesters on the ground, Hadeel's background as a Christian might harm Assad's lie of trying portray the uprising as a conflict between armed Islamic gangs and a secular regime. Assad is working hard to silence any Christian voices against him.
The neighboorhood where Hadeel lives in Cairo houses lot of Syrian embassy employees. This is known by their thuggish behaviour on March 17, while Syrian activists were protesting in front of the Syrian embassy in Cairo, a group of employees attacked and beat them.'
