A US activist arrested as part of a brutal crackdown in Cairo has filed a lawsuit against a former Egyptian prime minister who now lives in Washington DC, arguing he was targeted for assassination, arrest and torture. Mohamed Soltan was arrested following the violent dispersal of protesters in Cairo in 2013. Court documents chronicle the extensive physical torture Soltan suffered in multiple detention facilities during his 643-day detention, including beatings, denial of medical treatment and cigarette burns to the back of his neck. Guards at one prison encouraged him to commit suicide, and left him alone in a cell with a decomposing corpse. He was released and deported in 2015 following a prolonged hunger strike. The lawsuit filed on Monday in the district court of Washington DC accuses the then Egyptian prime minister, Hazem Abdel Aziz El Beblawi, of direct responsibility for Soltan’s treatment under the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act. It accuses Beblawi of coordinating with other top Egyptian officials to monitor Soltan’s movements during the 2013 protests, an attempt on his life and overseeing his arrest and torture. It also names the current president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, along with his top intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, as “unsued defendants” in the same case, detailing how the upper echelons of Egypt’s military regime worked to crush protests and arrest high-profile individuals including Soltan. Soltan, an Ohio State University economics graduate, was camped in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya square in 2013, with protestors who demanded the reinstatement of the former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, deposed in a military coup in July that year. According to Amnesty International, he was part of a media committee reporting on violations against Morsi supporters. Egyptian security forces later attacked the Rabaa square encampment as well as others in Cairo, killing at least 1,150 people in one of the bloodiest moments in Egypt’s modern history. The lawsuit alleges that Soltan was targeted for assassination by Egyptian security forces when they raided the camp, then later arrested and tortured for speaking with journalists who reported on the encampment and the massacre. It alleges that Beblawi “directed and monitored” the mistreatment of Soltan, along with other top officials including Kamel and Sisi himself. As a serving president, Sisi’s status grants him diplomatic immunity from legal proceedings, but Kamel and others risk being served should they visit the United States. The complaint includes a demand for a trial hearing, which would give Soltan the opportunity to face Beblawi in court. “As anxious as I am, I look forward to that day,” he said. Beblawi is currently an executive director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. “I want him to see my face,” said Soltan. “I’m sure he knew who I was but I was just a name – I want him to look into my eyes as I ask him why, why he took on the role that he did, ordering torture, the attempted extrajudicial killing, and what sort of moral justification he has that he can live with this.” The Torture Victim Protection Act allows non-US or US citizens to file suit against individuals from any foreign nation where there is clear evidence of their complicity in torture. It has been used successfully against victims of torture in Guatemala as well as the Palestinian Authority. Beblawi did not immediately respond to requests for comment lodged with Egypt’s State Information Service and the IMF. Soltan’s lawyer Eric L Lewis said: “We think in a court of law the story will be told, and it will be decided on facts rather than on the basis of propaganda. “The Egyptian regime relies on secrecy and things done in the cover of darkness in a torture cell – this is about getting all these issues out in sunlight.”