Brotherhood prisoners refuse to meet government-appointed delegation

Muslim Brotherhood leaders imprisoned in the maximum-security Al-Aqrab (“scorpion”) Prison — Prison 933 —refused to meet with a delegation from the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) during its visit to the facility on Wednesday. The council was appointed by the military following the bloody coup in 2013. In a report issued after the visit, Mohamed Fayeq, the NCHR President, claimed that Egyptian prisons “are devoid of any systematic torture.”

According to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Arabi 21, the following individuals refused to meet with the delegation: Khairat El-Shater, Murad Ali, Asaad Sheikha, Ahmed Diab, Saad Al-Habashi, Alaa Hamza, Ayman Hodhod, Hossam Abu Bakr, Osama Yassin, Essam Sultan, Mohamed El-Beltagy, Ayman Ali, Essam El-Erian, and Gamal Al-Ashri, along with two men who have been admitted to Leman Tora Hospital, namely Mustafa Al-Ghanimi and Rashad Bayoumi.

The prisoners sent a representative on their behalf to meet with the delegation who reiterated that they do not recognise the government which formed the NCHR and so do not recognise the legitimacy of the council itself. They also stressed that the NCHR and its reports do not represent them and described Al-Sisi’s government as a “coup regime”. The Brotherhood group also refused to make any complaints to the delegation due to the fact that they do not recognise it.

The head of the NCHR delegation, Hafez Abu Saada, expressed his surprise at the prisoner’s refusal to meet him and his colleagues in order to discuss their complaints.

Nevertheless, the council’s report admitted that it had received complaints from prisoners that they are being deprived of the right to groom themselves, kept in solitary confinement, prevented from receiving treatment outside the prison, given small amounts of food, deprived of essential medical care and deprived of family visits. With regards to the latter, the prisoners have said that they are limited to 10 minutes and take place behind glass partitions; no visits at all took place for three months (and were cancelled completely about a year ago). When they did take place, no physical contact was allowed between family members

The prisoners have also complained that they are not provided with medical care, including medication, which affects those with chronic illnesses particularly badly. Blankets and other personal items, as well as drinks and bottled water, have also been refused, even though the prison canteen has been closed down.

The NCHR delegation met with three prisoner representatives. Ahmad Abu Baraka, who has been serving a life sentence since 2013, complained that he did not receive a fair trial, accusing the authorities of violating international standards for free and fair trials. He claimed that the prosecution and judges were biased, and that the prison and its officials are the weakest link in what he believes is official harassment at all levels.

The second representative met by the council delegation was Mohammed Al-Ansari, who demanded that visits be extended to 45 minutes, according to the regulations, and that prisoners be allowed to shake hands with family members, and have regular visits. At the moment, he pointed out, visits are only allowed with a permit from the Attorney General. He also asked that beds, mattresses and cotton sheets be made available, along with daily newspapers, and that library visits be allowed. According to Al-Ansari, a prisoner in the same wing as him, Ala’a Hamza, has not been visited by his family for nearly two years.

Journalist Ahmed Subai told the delegation that the current government is a coup regime, of which the NCHR is a branch. He added that the council is only meant to provide a veneer of respect for human rights to burnish the government’s image. Addressing NCHR delegate Mohammed Abdul Quddus directly, Subai criticised the journalists’ union, accusing it of defending the government rather than imprisoned journalists.

The NCHR admitted that its delegation did not examine the prison wings or see the suffering of the prisoners at first hand. It was sufficient, the report claimed, to visit the prison kitchen, cafeteria, hospital and library. The prisoners, it noted, are “provided with medical care”, although it called for periodic visits by council delegations to follow-up on the prison conditions. The report requested the prison authorities to reconsider the decision made on the basis of Article 42 of the Prisons Act regarding the allowance of regular visits for prisoners’ families.

During the launch of the NCHR report at a press conference on Thursday, Mohamed Fayeq surprised everyone by claiming that many of the complaints made by the prisoners and their families are not true. He denied that torture is systematic in Egyptian prisons, but noted that this doesn’t mean that torture does not take place. “We are all human and we all make mistakes,” he said by way of excusing the torturers.

Fayeq repeated his demand for the law governing the NCHR to be amended to give it the right to visit prisons and detention centres without prior permission.

Delegation head Hafez Abu Saada, who is also in charge of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, revealed that there is now a record number of prisoners in Egyptian jails. He revealed that there has been a significant increase in the number of prisoners held in each cell and that this affects the health care provision.

“After our visit to the prisons,” he added, “we must improve the health services, coordinate with state hospitals and grant early release to prisoners who are seriously ill in order for them not to die in prison. There must also be an amendment to the Prisons Act to provide full health care to the prisoners according to international standards.”

Messages smuggled out of Al-Aqrab Prison contained details of the prisoners’ complaints. These include constant abuse from the minute they enter its gates, when their clothes are torn off and burnt. There are often more than 15 prisoners in each cell, which has an area of just 10 square metres. The prisoners call these cells “graves” due to the lack of adequate ventilation therein.

A recent report by Human Rights Monitor suggested that “prisoners are dying a slow death” in Egypt’s Al-Aqrab Prison. It noted that “violations are committed on an almost daily basis in the various Egyptian prisons but they are more intense against the prisoners in Al-Aqrab Prison located in the Tora Prison complex.” In the past month alone, Essam Derbala, the President of the Islamic Shura Council and, before him, Marjan Salem, Leader of Ansar Al-Sharia Egypt, were both killed in prison by what has been termed “medical negligence”.

Translated from Arabi21 28 August, 2015.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.