Yasin El Sammak, 22, and his 15-year-old brother arrived outside an Egyptian diplomatic building in Manhattan last week, planning to film a small protest urging the country to do more for residents of Gaza suffering from starvation.
Instead, video provided by Egyptian activist Husam Khaled shows Egyptian government personnel dragging the pair off the street and into the building, where they were repeatedly pummeled, thrown to the ground and whipped with a metal chain.
New York City police then arrested El Sammak and his younger brother on felony assault and strangulation charges, even as witness testimony and footage from the scene appeared to contradict a narrative given to police by Egyptian officials.
“Just when the NYPD was supposed to protect us, they instead arrested my brother and me and let those who abused us walk free,” El Sammak told The Associated Press, adding that the Aug. 20 experience had left him “traumatized and confused.”
When he and his attorney tried to file charges this week against the Egyptian security officials, they were rebuffed by police, who claimed the incident was outside their jurisdiction.
Under international law, diplomatic officials receive immunity from certain criminal prosecutions. A spokesperson for the police department didn’t say whether those protections factored into the decision not to charge the Egyptian officials.
An emailed inquiry to the Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations, where the incident occurred, was not returned.
Egyptian official claims El Sammak struck him
According to the criminal complaint, an Egyptian official alleged it was El Sammak who struck him with the chain, “causing swelling and substantial pain to his hands.” El Sammak denies that allegation.
“It seems like the conduct carried out by the Egyptian officials was wrongly attributed to my client and his brother, the actual victims of the crime,” said Jacqueline Dombroff, an attorney for El Sammak. “The NYPD and the district attorney’s office knows this, they’ve seen the footage, yet they’ve refused to dismiss the case against him.”
The altercation comes amid a wave of protests at Egyptian diplomatic buildings in Europe and elsewhere to demand the country allow humanitarian aid through the border crossing with the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Egyptian officials have denied blocking aid and sharply condemned the demonstrations, some of which have involved vandalism and other property damage.
Egypt has publicly denounced the restrictions on aid entering Gaza and repeatedly called for an end to the war. It has said that the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing remains open, but access to the strip has been blocked since Israel seized the Palestinian side of the border.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading authority on global hunger crises, said on Aug. 22 that parts of Gaza are in famine and warned that it is spreading. For months, U.N. agencies, aid groups and experts have warned that Israel’s blockade of Gaza and ongoing offensive against Hamas were pushing the territory to the brink.
Israel has been fighting Hamas since the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Video shows official swinging chain
El Sammak, a U.S. citizen who is set to enroll in a nursing program this fall, said he had joined several peaceful protests in recent weeks outside Egypt’s diplomatic building, located in Midtown Manhattan, to voice his anger toward what he called the country’s “complicity in genocide.”
But on Aug. 20, another activist, Khaled, attempted to chain the entrance of the building, two officials charged at El Sammak, who was filming the scene while standing alongside his brother behind a barricade on the sidewalk.
“They grabbed my brother and me and brought us inside the mission and started hitting us with chains, beating us,” El Sammak said. “They took the Palestinian scarf that I was wearing and pulled it extremely hard to the point that I was being suffocated.”
Video also shows one of the officials swinging the chain — which Khaled had attempted to lock the door with — into El Sammak as he lies on the ground.
Khaled then flagged down police, who arrived roughly 30 seconds after the brothers were pulled inside the building.
El Sammak was at first relieved to see police, he said, but “became confused once I saw the cops pointing the Taser at me, then arresting me and my brother, who are actually the victims in this case.”
Investigation ongoing
He and his brother were placed in handcuffs by officers who refused to take their statements, El Sammak added, then transported to a police precinct and held overnight.
“I had to wait a very long time to understand why I’m being arrested,” he said. “It’s because we were standing with Palestine, which the NYPD doesn’t like.”
At an arraignment the following day, charges against El Sammak were downgraded to a misdemeanor felony. The case against his younger brother, who was initially charged with strangulation and felony assault, was heard in family court and has since been sealed.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they were seeking additional video and witnesses for the investigation, which remains ongoing.
The incident is not the first time that a foreign country has drawn scrutiny for its response to demonstrations outside diplomatic buildings in U.S. cities.
In 2017, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards attacked peaceful protesters gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., spurring lawsuits and criminal charges against some of the security officials.
