Due to the Egyptian regime’s ongoing abuses against political prisoners, including illegal medical negligence and inhuman detention conditions, victims among Egyptian detainees continue to occur.
In this regard, political prisoner Ahmed Mahmoud Al-Gabalawy, 60, died on the 10th of Ramadan due to intentional medical negligence. Al-Gabalawy was the secretary of the Freedom and Justice Party in the southern Egyptian governorate of Qena,
Even though Al-Gabalawy sufferers from liver cirrhosis, the prison administration refused to provide him with the adequate medical care.
Al-Gabalawi is the eleventh prisoner to die in Egypt’s jails and detention facilities since the start of the year.
Over the past year, 32 prisoners died behind bars after suffering from deliberate medical negligence, the majority of whom were political detainees.
Al-Gabalawy’s death brings to light the grave human rights situation in Egypt, where prisoners endure appalling detention conditions and persistent violations of their fundamental rights.
His death from willful medical negligence is a glaring example of how the Egyptian government has failed to provide detainees with the medical attention they need, which is a blatant breach of both international law and moral principles.
In light of this tragic event, human rights institutions and international organisations must continue to put pressure on the Egyptian government to assume full responsibility for protecting prisoners, providing them with access to quality medical care, investigating suspicious death cases, holding those responsible accountable, and ensuring that similar incidents do not occur again in the future.
Egyptian prisons typically lack basic health facilities, such as adequate food, clean restrooms that can accommodate the number of inmates, sports, lighting, and ventilation. Most of them also face excessive prison overcrowding.
It is important to remember that “prisoners deprived of their liberty should be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human personality,” according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
