Coffins and funerals will continue to come out of prisons as long as impunity is enjoyed by the authorities
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stressed that the death of Dr. Essam Al-Erian following years of medical negligence in the notorious Scorpion Prison where he was detained, is a new crime that is added to the Egyptian regime’s record of violations.
Dr. Essam Al-Erian, a former parliamentarian and leader of the Freedom and Justice Party, died on Thursday August 13, after seven years of physical and psychological torture and medical negligence.
AOHR UK stressed that the death of Al-Erian is a premeditated murder by the Egyptian regime which detained him in an inhumane detention facility and ignored the repeated appeals he made during court sessions for suffering medical negligence psychological stress and abuse, especially after being infected with hepatitis C Virus, three years after his arrest.
Furthermore, AOHR UK rejected the regime’s claim that the cause of death is cardiac arrest followed a verbal dispute with one of Al-Erian’s prison mates, stating that this is a false narration, given the systematic medical negligence in prisons. The organisation highlighted that the regime creates a different narrations on the cause of death for each death case to clear itself from any responsibility, while local and international pro-government media outlets spread it to convince the public that it is the truth.
The ongoing slow killings inside the Egyptian detention facilities are clear evidence of the Egyptian regime’s endeavor to kill its political opponents by detaining them in places that are similar to graveyards, while denying them their basic rights.
AOHR UK warned that the lives of thousands of detainees are in danger given the appalling detention conditions in Egyptian prisons and the systematic medical negligence policies especially during the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic which already infected a large number of detainees and 22 detainees have died so far as a result.
Dr. Essam Al-Erian is among 12 other detainees who died in Tora High-Security Prison 1 (the Scorpion), under the current regime.
842 detainees have died in various Egyptian prisons due to medical negligence, poor conditions of detention, torture, and widespread corruption inside the detention facilities.
AOHR UK called on the international community and the United Nations General Assembly to form an international investigation committee to investigate cases of deaths inside Egyptian prisons and to pressure the regime to release prisoners of conscience, especially the most vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and those with chronic diseases.
AHOR UK stressed that without accountability, funerals will continue to emerge from prisons.
