Egypt: Family of detained lawyer Hoda Abdelmonem say they are not permitted to visit

The family of detained lawyer Hoda Abdelmonem has issued a statement to say they have been denied visitation rights.

It comes in response to a statement published on the social media accounts of the Interior Ministry which claimed Hoda is regularly visited by her family.

“We are truly shocked by these allegations which proves that the regime has  no real intentions to provide the family even the most basic rights of communication with Hoda.”

“Hoda has been imprisoned since 1 November 2018 without getting any single visit either from the family or lawyer.”

The family also expressed concern that Hoda’s health is deteriorating again and no healthcare has been provided.

Hoda is being held in Al-Qanater women’s prison on pretrial detention despite exceeding the two-year limit Egyptian law stipulates prisoners can be held on remand.

READ: Egypt’s political prisoners denied bread and fruit

On 1 November 2018 Egyptian state security forces broke into then 60-year-old Hoda’s house in Cairo, trashed it, blindfolded her and put her in a police van without showing an arrest warrant.

They searched her house and then took her to an unknown destination and forcibly disappeared her for 20 days before she reappeared in court.

Hoda was one of 19 human rights activists swept up that day in the government’s crackdown on free speech.

Hoda is a lawyer at the Egyptian Cassation and Supreme Constitutional Courts and a former member of the National Council for Human Rights and Egyptian Bar Association.

In January last year Amnesty International called on the Egyptian authorities to release her.

The Egyptian authorities tightened restrictions on visitors and in some cases banned them altogether in what they said was an attempt to get a handle on the coronavirus pandemic in March last year.

Not only has vital, lifesaving medicine been prevented from entering prisons but also food. A recent collection of testimonies put together by the Arab Network for Rights information showed that some prisoners were banned from receiving bread and fruit.