Adel Eisheh dies in Egypt prison after medical negligence

Adel Abdulwahab Abu Eisheh has died in Wadi Al-Natroun prison after being denied medical treatment for his liver disease and diabetes.

Adel has become one of a number of prisoners to die this year by being denied medical attention, a common punitive measure used by the Egyptian regime against political prisoners.

In June former President Mohamed Morsi died after collapsing during a court session. He had been held in solitary confinement and been denied urgent medical attention for his diabetes.

In July Omar Adel died in Tora Prison at the age of 29 and Kilani Hassan died in Minya Prison after being denied medical attention and being subjected to poor prison conditions.

Watch: Void: Campaign highlights plight of Egypt detainees

Egyptians detainees are kept in overcrowded cells with poor ventilation and are not given adequate food. Many are kept in solitary confinement without a toilet and are only allowed out for an hour a day.

Many prisoners are banned from seeing their families, a punitive measure which worsened after Morsi’s death. In July the price of special permits to visit detainees went up by 500 per cent.

At the end of July the Cairo based El-Nadeem NGO recorded that 30 people had died in custody and 111 had been subjected to medical negligence in the first six months of 2019.

Egyptian activists relaunched the Batel (void) campaign on 2 August to raise awareness of the 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt.

It was first launched in April to reject constitutional amendments to extended President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s rule and the government has tried multiple times to block the site.

Egyptian authorities have once again blocked the campaign after signatories exceeded 130,000, but Egyptians have instead united under the Arabic hashtag “Egypt’s prisons are illegitimate”.