Ten years after the Arab Spring uprising overthrew the former military-backed president, prisons in Egypt are just as bad as ever, Amnesty International has reported.
In its report, Amnesty documented the detention of 67 individuals, 10 of whom had died in custodyImage: Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance
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The human rights organization Amnesty International published a scathing report on Monday decrying the inhumane conditions in Egyptian prisons. The report comes a decade after the Arab Spring uprising.
What does the report say
The report detailed the experiences of 67 individuals in detention, 10 of whom died in custody and two who died shortly after being released. It was carried out primarily between February 2020 and November 2020 and focused on 16 prisons. It found that:
Prisoners were kept in squalid conditions and received unhealthy food;
There was no proper access to health care, which may have resulted in death;
Overcrowding, poor ventilation and limited access to water and toilets led inevitably to outbreaks of coronavirus.
The report also found that some prisoners were deliberately denied access to health care due to their political affiliations. Activists, politicians and human rights defenders were denied basic treatments available to other inmates.
The Arab Spring — 10 years on
Despite the wave of protests and uprisings across the Middle East 10 years ago, which successfully ousted the former military-backed president Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian authorities continue to "round up tens of thousands of actual or perceived critics and opponents," the report said.
Due to this policy of large-scale arrests and over-incarceration, prisoners were left with just 1.1 square meters of floor space each in the prisons examined by Amnesty. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recommends at least 3.4 square meters.
There was also evidence of prison authorities "targeting prisoners critical of the government and denying them adequate food or family visits," Markus Beeko, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany, asserted.
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How have Egyptian authorities responded?
The Egyptian government rejected the allegations of bad conditions and torture in its prisons. The state-controlled news site Al-Ahram denounced the report as "negative rumors."
The week prior to the publication of the Amnesty report, the country's Interior Ministry released a video showing prisoners in the notorious Torah prison in Cairo receiving health care in line with the latest medical standards. The video also showed prisoners reading, painting and backing.
Icons of Egypt's 2011 revolution: Where are they now?
Ten years after Egypt's January 25 revolution, many of those who led protests are disillusioned or in jail.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Wael Ghonim: From inspiration to despair
Wael Ghonim was in Dubai when he created a Facebook page called "We are all Khaled Said." Ghonim knew Said, a 28-year-old blogger who was beaten to death by police. The page played an organizing role in the January protests. Since 2014, Ghonim has lived in the US. Now 40, his online commentary suggests he's depressed and disillusioned about the situation in Egypt.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Elfiqi
Mahienour el-Masry: Arbitrary detention
Human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Masry was one of the first to protest Said's death. El-Masry, now 35, has been arrested multiple times and spent several years behind bars. In 2019, she was arrested again after going to the state prosecutor's office to defend detainees. To date, her case still has not been heard and she remains in prison in what Humans Rights Watch calls "arbitrary detention."
Image: picture alliance/AA/M. Mahmoud
Alaa Abdel-Fattah: Beaten and imprisoned
Alaa Abdel-Fattah and his wife founded a blog in 2004 to support local activists, after he had been arrested many times. After five years in jail he was released in March 2019, only to be arrested again that September. He remains in prison. Amnesty International has said he and his lawyer have been subjected to torture in prison.
Image: CC BY-SA 2.5/Common Good
Ahmed Maher: Out on parole
Ahmed Maher was co-founder of the April 6 movement, started in 2008 on Facebook in support of Egyptian workers who planned to strike that day. The movement helped organize the protests of January 2011. Like many other activists, Maher, now 40, was arrested several times. In late 2013, he was sentenced to three more years, then released in 2017. The April 6 movement was outlawed in 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Esraa Abdel-Fattah: Jailed Nobel nominee
Esraa Abdel-Fattah came to be known as Egypt's "Facebook Girl" because of her live broadcasts during the protests. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She was arrested several times and withdrew from politics. But in October 2019 she was arrested again. Despite international calls for her release, the 43-year-old remains in prison today.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/K. Desouki
Ahmed Douma: Arrested by everyone
Ahmed Douma was among the first protesters in Cairo on January 25, 2011. He is infamous in Egypt for having been arrested by every Egyptian administration in recent years. In 2019, he was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security prison and ordered to pay a fine of $335,000 (€275,200) for, among other things, using force against military officers. Douma, now 32, remains in prison.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Asmaa Mahfouz: Focus on family
A week before the January 25 protest, Asmaa Mahfouz posted a video on social media calling for others to join her at the demonstration. It was viewed by millions and is credited with inspiring many. Mahfouz has not been imprisoned, although she is banned from traveling outside Egypt. The 35-year-old single mother now focuses on her two children and has shied away from political controversy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mohammed el-Beltagy: In jail, in bad health
Mohammed el-Beltagy, now 53, was a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a powerful Islamist group, and became part of the government after the Brotherhood's party won the 2012 election. After the military takeover in 2013 he was jailed for life, where he remains today. In 2019, his family said his health was deteriorating. This month, Egyptian authorities reportedly seized his assets.
Image: picture-alliance/AA
Mohamed ElBaradei: Advocating from Austria
Mohamed ElBaradei, now 78, started with the Egyptian diplomatic corps in 1964 and spent most of his career overseas. On January 27, 2011, he returned home. ElBaradei went on to play a prominent role in several opposition parties and became Egypt's interim vice president in 2013. But he resigned after a month, following the massacre of over 500 Morsi supporters. Soon after he returned to Vienna.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
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According to UN estimates, there are 114,000 people incarcerated in the north African country.
What does Amnesty recommend?
The human rights organization called on Egyptian authorities to release all those who had been arrested for exercising their human rights and those in pre-trial detention on "bogus charges."
The report also urged the government to work with independent international organizations such as ICRC and allow them to monitor the conditions in the prisons.
It also recommended carrying out investigations into the cases where people had died in custody and where certain prisoners had been deliberately denied access to necessary health care.
"To end the utter disregard for detainees’ health and lives, the authorities must launch independent and effective investigations into all incidents of deaths in custody and allegations of deliberate denial of health care and hold those suspected to be responsible accountable in proceedings meeting international fair trial standards," the report said.
