BBC Online :
Brutal beatings, sexual abuse, and electric shocks are being carried out on detainees, including teenage children, in Egypt, according to testimonies gathered by the BBC.
As many 20,000 people are estimated to have been held since last July in a sweeping clampdown on dissent.
A growing number are now emerging from police stations and prisons with serious allegations of torture.
The claims are denied by the military-backed interim government.
For 15-year old Ahmed Abdel Fattah, the trouble began on 24 January, when his fondness for his mobile phone cost him his freedom.
Ahmed Abdel Fattah, 15: “When they electrocuted me, I fell down.”
He was using the phone to film an Islamist protest near his home in Sharqiya Province, north of Cairo.
When some local thugs tried to steal the phone he refused to hand it over, so they handed him over to the police.
The softly-spoken and neatly dressed teenager says that was the start of 34 days of torture at a local police station.
