More victims are being killed as a result of the deliberate medical negligence by the Egyptian authorities against prisoners of conscience. The number of victims since the beginning of 2021 has reached 25, while the total number of victims since July 2013 has reached 893.
The detainee Ahmed Saber Mahmoud Mohamed, 45, was the last victim of deliberate health negligence. He fell ill suddenly in his cell in the high-security Tora 2 Prison, in which health and humanitarian conditions are inhumane, like all other detention centers where prisoners of conscience are held.
The Egyptian authorities arrested “Ahmed Saber” in late 2014, and subjected him to enforced disappearance during which he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. He appeared later on in the Supreme State Security Prosecution to be interrogated in Case No. 4459 of 2015 Helwan Felonies, registration No. 451 of 2014 Supreme State Security, known in the media as the Helwan Brigades case.
It is worth noting that last month three victims died of medical negligence in Egyptian prisons, including Abdel-Qader Gaber, Sayed Nassar, and El-Sayed Mohamed Ibrahim.
Prisoners of conscience suffer from medical negligence in Egyptian detention facilities that lack international standards for places of detention suitable for the detention of human beings, according to a statement by Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK.
AOHR UK pointed to large overcrowding in cells where detainees suffer from malnutrition, lack of hygiene, the spread of insects, pollution, and lack of ventilation and lighting.
AOHR UK has repeatedly warned against the Egyptian authorities’ negligence to the lives of detainees, for whom the government is responsible under international laws and treaties, especially in times of epidemics.
Ever since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assumed power in the country, the Egyptian authorities have been carrying out an unprecedented crackdown on dissidents and critics, arresting thousands in politically motivated cases, many of whom have been convicted and sentenced in unfair trials, or held without trial on fabricated charges of terrorism, where they remain for years in very poor detention conditions.
