Earlier this month, a former Wheaton College student was abducted by the Egyptian state security agents. He was held blindfolded and handcuffed for four days and then released without explanation.

Philip Rizk is an Egyptian-German citizen, and graduate student at the American University in Cairo. Before his arrest on February 6th, he operated a Palestinian rights blog called “Tabula Gaza.” Egyptian security agents took down that blog and confiscated Philip’s computers, portable hard drives, and research notes for his master’s thesis.

Philip was only one of what activists say are 18,000 political prisoners held by Egypt. After his release, Philip started a new blog to tell the story of his arrest.