Journalist Mona Eltahawy allegedly sexually abused by Egyptian police

Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-born American journalist, said she was sexually assaulted and abused during a 12-hour detention by Egyptian police, CBS News reported.

Eltahawy let her Twitter followers know her story firsthand, tweeting her arrest and photos of her casts from being abused in prison. The reporter was arrested near Egypt’s Interior Ministry around Tahrir Square, as clashes between protesters and police continued since Saturday, CBS reported. According to her tweets, her left arm and right hand were broken, which she later posted a photo of the casts.

Read more at GlobalPost: Egypt: 3 American students released after protest arrests

Her tweets explicitly went through her treatment in the Cairo cell, saying she was “blindfolded for two hours.” When she told police she “didn’t want to go with them,” an officer said she “either go politely or else,” she tweeted.

“The past 12 hrs were painful and surreal but I know I got off much much easier than so many other Egyptians,” Eltahawy wrote on Twitter.

Eltahawy told MSNBC she was sexually abused by riot police who dragged her by her hair and groped her between the legs.

"They acted like animals," she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. "I was filming the protests with my camera phone on Mohammed Mahmoud Street when they surrounded me and pulled me away." After she was allegedly assaulted, she was handed over to military police where she said she was blindfolded for two hours.

She was released with an apology and a promise of an investigation, the AP reported.