The Egyptian authorities continue to practice medical negligence in their prisons against prisoners of conscience which have led to the death of many detainees who were held in very poor conditions of detention.
The last victim of this policy which violates the most basic human rights is the detainee Naji Sobh Al-Sayed Sharab, from the village of Arab Abu Zekry Quesna, in Menoufia Governorate. He died on Friday, December 10, in the Shebin El-Kom Prison Hospital, to which he was transferred after his health deteriorated seriously as a result of medical neglect, after he had been detained since April 2018.
Sharab is the second prisoner of conscience to die as a result of medical negligence this month. The death of the teacher Nasr Ibrahim Al-Ghozlani, 56, was recently announced after eight years of detention in notorious Scorpion Prison.
With the death of Sharab, the number of deaths in Egyptian detention centres and prisons since the beginning of this year has risen to 45, most of whom died as a result of medical negligence concurrent with poor detention conditions, which raised the total number of victims since July 2013 to 912 victims.
The Egyptian authorities are holding hundreds of political detainees in Scorpion Prison (high security), who face the risk of death as a result of deliberate medical negligence, preventing entry of medicines, as well as cancelling weekly and exceptional visits on official holidays, and completely depriving inmates of ventilation, electricity and hot water.
