Amnesty: Egyptian prisoner faces ‘slow death’ in solitary

Egyptian prisoner, Ahmed Amin Ghazali, who has been on hunger strike in protest against his solitary confinement, is dying slowly in prison, Amnesty International has reported on its official Twitter account.

In a letter written by Ghazali published by Amnesty, the detainee said that he is facing death in confinement, being not able to speak or move, adding that the prison administration has assaulted him and tortured him in an attempt to force him to break his hunger strike.

Image of Egyptian prisoner, Ahmed Amin Ghazali [Roc_torre /Twitter]

Ghazali went on hunger strike on 9 March to demand the end of his “prolonged solitary confinement”, which began in May 2016 when he, along with seven other men in Case 174 of 2015 known by the media as the “advanced operations committee case”, was sentenced to death by a military court after being convicted for belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“An appeal hearing is still due to be set. If rejected, he could be executed at any time,” Amnesty said.

Since the military coup in July 2013, thousands of detainees have been held in terrible conditions in overcrowded jails which human rights organisations described as “inhumane”. This has resulted in hundreds of deaths in prison.

According to a report by Amnesty, between July 2013 and 30 June 2015 over 41,000 people were detained in Egypt.