In yet another crime added to the appalling record of abuses within Egyptian prisons, detainee Saad Abu El-Enein, from Shebin El-Kom in Monufia Governorate, died in his cell at Al-Ashir Min Ramadan Prison due to deliberate medical neglect and the absence of basic healthcare.
The death of Abu El-Enein, who had been suffering from critical health conditions, once again confirms that Egyptian prisons have effectively become graves for the living. The authorities continue to subject political prisoners to repressive practices, systematically denying them their most basic human rights, including access to medical care.
Human rights sources reported that the deceased endured systematic medical negligence, with his deteriorating condition repeatedly ignored despite urgent appeals for proper treatment. His rapid health decline and subsequent death highlight the deliberate slow-killing policy practised by the Egyptian authorities in blatant defiance of international conventions and basic human values.
Local and international human rights organisations have condemned this heinous crime, holding the Egyptian authorities fully responsible for Abu El-Enein’s death. They have called for an urgent and independent international investigation to uncover the circumstances surrounding his death and to hold those responsible accountable for these ongoing violations, which have become a daily reality inside Egypt’s prisons.
Thousands of political prisoners in Egypt continue to endure brutal detention conditions, including solitary confinement, denial of family visits, malnutrition, and systematic medical neglect — a reality that exposes the complete collapse of the rule of law and lays bare the false official rhetoric claiming respect for human rights.
Against this catastrophic backdrop, the families of detainees and human rights organisations are intensifying calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners, particularly those who are elderly or critically ill, and for an end to the policy of deliberate medical neglect that has already claimed dozens of lives in recent years.
The continuation of these crimes without accountability reflects a shameful international complicity and renders the world’s silence a partner in the ongoing tragedy facing innocent prisoners.
In the face of such deadly disregard for the lives of detainees, urgent and serious action is needed to put an end to these abuses before the death toll rises further within Egypt’s prisons, which have become a grim symbol of repression and systematic brutality.