A new letter was leaked from a high-security Makhsous Prison in Minya, in which detainees revealed being held in a “deteriorating detention conditions, harassment, ill-treatment and medical negligence, banning of books, and deprivation from the most basic human rights, including breathing fresh air and seeing the sunlight.”
The detainees were subjected to “arbitrary and inhumane search of their cells in a manner that causes them both physical and psychological harm.”
They revealed that every 3 – 4 detainees are held in 2x2m narrow cells, due to which detainees make sleeping shifts. They also suffer from lack of lighting in their cells.
Detainees in Badr 3 prison had recently leaked a lengthy distress message, after receiving threats from National Security officers to turn the prison into a cemetery by killing all detainees.
More than 600 prisoners attempted suicide, after promises of the Ministry of Interior to open visits, improve detention conditions and provide medical care inside the prison were unfulfilled.
The letter revealed that dozens of detainees are still denied from receiving family visitations or receiving food from their families. Furthermore, they are prevented from communicating with anyone inside the prison.
According to the prison regulation, each detainee has the right to play sports for two hours daily, however the prison authorities allow them two hours only over the whole week, in two separate hours, and under heavy security.”
Detainees also complained of the small quantity and poor quality of food given to them. They stressed that medical care in prison is still inadequate as well.
Recently, detainees in the New Valley prison leaked a distress message, which revealed many violations suffered by the detainees, including being held in a prison in the desert, six hours away from the nearest village. They also stated that detainees there suffer from all kinds of physical and psychological torture, amid complete isolation.
They revealed that any new detainee is received with insults and severe beatings for hours at the hands of informants as security officers, which leads to some detainees fainting under the ongoing torture.
The new detainee is then transferred in his underwear only to a 1×2 m disciplinary cell without access to toilet or water.
