Egypt 2011-2012: A Year of Revolution: The Detainees

With paranoia running rampant and coupled with actual infiltrators working for Egypt's feared Interior Ministry police, the protesters in Tahrir Square set up an office in a travel agency in order to process and hold those suspected of being undercover police officers. Those who were determined to be members of the security forces were then held and interrogated by the protesters. While several of the identity cards belonging to these men did confirm that they worked for the police, others were more ambiguous. What was certain, however, was that, for the protesters, many of whom had spent time as political prisoners, turning the tables on the feared secret police - having them at their mercy - marked a previously unimaginable shift in circumstances.