Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) received a distress letter from prisoners of conscience in the Zagazig Public Prison in Egypt, detailing serious violations they are subjected to, in cells unfit for human detention and “more of a deliberate means of “slow killing”, according to their statement.
The message confirmed that detainees are crammed in cells, where each detainee has only half a meter, forcing them to make sleeping shifts due to the very tiny space.
The cells lack toilet, and it is located far from cells, where prison guards allow detainees to use them for only half an hour, forcing those who need to use toilets to use buckets, thus increasing the suffering and humiliation of detainees in prisons that are unsuitable for human life.
Furthermore, during this half hour detainees are subjected to the so-called “welcoming”, which is intense beatings by security personnel, and being forced to stand with their faces to the wall as a form of humiliation. While using the toilets, detainees are forced to leave the doors open or cover themselves.
According to the letter, the food quality is very poor and detainees attempt to reduce their eating as much as possible, to avoid the need to defecate.
The family visits last for only three minutes, and it takes place behind a wire barrier in a very crowded place, with a distance of one meter between the detainee and his family, making the voices of detainees not heard by their families, and vice versa.
It should be noted that Zagazig prison witnessed many deaths due to medical negligence and its inhumane detention conditions, which contributed to the death of detainees.
Since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assumed power in the country, the Egyptian authorities have been waging an unprecedented crackdown on dissidents and critics, arresting thousands in politically motivated arrests, many of whom have been convicted and sentenced in unfair trials, or held without trial for years on baseless terrorism-related charges, where they remain in very poor detention cells.
