Prisoners of conscience in Badr 3 Prison leaked a message, revealing the ongoing policy of starvation and the constant insults to detainees to end the hunger strike they started to demand their rights.
The letter stated that “the crisis in Badr 3 prison is escalating, after the Ministry of Interior closed the prison and all services there, including the cafeteria and canteen, and reducing the quantities of food served to detainees to two meals a day.”
It added: “on Friday, the second day of Ramadan, one of the officers insulted the detainees, saying, ‘You are nothing but rubbish.’ In response, 1000 detainees refused to take their meals until they meet with those in charge of the prison. However, they ignored their demand, and threw the meals of the detainees in the bin, thus making detainees starve for two full days.”
The letter continued: “The prison administration started negotiating with the detainees who covered the CCTV cameras of the cells to demand receiving visits from their families, as the prison administration refuses to provide any medical treatment or sending detainees to the prison clinic unless covers are removed of the CCTV cameras.”
The letter added, “the prison administration gradually reduced the sizes of meal, the last of which was with the beginning of Ramadan, to subject detainees to a famine, which prison officers claim a normal response for the detainees’ refusal to take a step back.”
According to the letter: “The official quantity of food is 50 grams of cooked rice per day, 50 grams of cooked vegetables, 50 grams of beans and halva, 65 grams of cheese, and 4 bread per day for breakfast and lunch outside of Ramadan. They are the same courses for breakfast and suhoor.”
The prisoners said, “The food given to patients is 15 grams less in each of rice, vegetables, and beans, and there is a lack of loaf and no halva, and they only give them 250 millilitres of milk per day, which doesn’t suffice a child. The meals provided by the cafeteria at the expense of the detainees used to compensate for the small quantities of the meals. However, with the closure of the cafeteria, the situation turned into a real famine.”
They added, “all detainees, except for those who were transferred to Badr 1, Badr 5, Wadi al-Natrun prisons, Minya, New Assiut, and Gamasa, whether they were convicted or under investigation, were receiving visits and all other prison services were opened, while the Ministry of Interior insisted on imposing these unfair measures on detainees in Badr 3, which only has detainees under investigation, leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and aides to the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.”
“The Ministry of the Interior suspended its negotiations with the detainees until detainees take a step back to maintain the prestige of the Ministry of Interior. On Monday, the fifth of Ramadan, the detainee Mahmoud Mohamed had his third attempt to suicide by cutting his arteries, but he was rescued by his fellow detainees.”
The Badr 3 detainees were able to leak several messages about the harsh conditions they suffer in prison, and the violations of the authorities against them, stressing that dozens of detainees attempted suicide to end their suffering, while others entered into an open hunger strike.
The Badr 3 detainees continue their peaceful protests to demand receiving visits, sports, health care, improvement of living conditions, and respect for human rights.
It is noteworthy that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that “prisoners deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity, and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human personality.”
