The family of the Egyptian detainee, university professor Samir Younes Salah, 67, accused the Egyptian authorities of deliberately killing him in his prison.
On Saturday, the Egyptian Public Prosecutor, Mohamed Shawqi Ayyad, received a report from Salah’s family (from Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate), asking him to investigate his death inside his detention facility.
The family asked the Public Prosecutor to assign one of his subordinates to investigate the causes of death inside his prison cell in Al-Abadiya prison in Damanhour, as they suspect that the prison administration killed him, since it deliberately prevented him from receiving treatment, prevented him from receiving visitation, or giving him medicine, despite the family submitting several requests and complaints on the prevention of medications and the health deterioration of the detainee.
The report stated that they were notified that the detainee was transferred from Al-Abadiya Prison in Damanhour, Beheira Governorate, to Damanhour General Hospital after his health condition deteriorated. However, they learned that the detainee arrived dead from prison as a result of deliberate medical negligence, holding the Egyptian Prison Service and those in charge of managing Al-Abadiya Prison responsible for the detainee’s death. His family demanded an investigation into the incident.
The detainee, Dr. Samir Younis, was deported from Kuwait to Egypt five years ago after spending more than 25 years in Kuwait.
Dr. Samir Younis was tried alongside 13 others in the case called “the returnees from Kuwait.” He was serving a life sentence on charges of joining a terrorist group, a charge that the Egyptian regime used as a pretext to torture its opponents and try them unfairly.
Dr. Younes’s death highlights the dire human rights situation in Egypt, where detainees and convicts suffer from horrific detention conditions and ongoing violations of their basic rights.
His death due to deliberate medical negligence constitutes a clear indication of the failure of the Egyptian authorities to provide the necessary medical care to detainees, which is a flagrant violation of international law and ethical standards.
This tragic event requires human rights and international organisations to put constant pressure on the Egyptian government, to bear full responsibility for protecting detainees and convicts, providing adequate medical care for them inside prisons, investigating death incidents, bringing those responsible to justice, and ensuring that such incidents will not be repeated in the future.
It should be noted that Egyptian prisons generally lack basic health requirements, which include good quality food, sanitary facilities, and human toilets suitable for the number of prisoners, as well as lighting, ventilation, and sports. Most of the Egyptian detention centres also suffer from severe overcrowding of prisoners inside places of detention.
