Fourth inmate dies in Egypt prisons in 2022, says lawyer

A picture taken during a guided tour organised by the Egyptian State Information Service on November 20, 2019, shows inmates receiving medical treatment at the clinic of Borg el-Arab prison near the Egyptian city of Alexandria [MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images]

A new political prisoner has died in Egyptian prisons, rights lawyer Ahmed Helmy announced yesterday, adding that this is the fourth death in detention so far this year.

Helmy named the deceased as one of his clients, 50-year-old Tamer Fekry Gamal El-Din, a merchant and preacher of a mosque, who was serving a ten-year prison sentence.

Gamal El-Din had died a “week ago”, noting that the prison administration had transferred him to hospital “without notifying his family until they were informed on a normal visit day.”

This is the fourth death in prisons in 2022, according to independent human rights organisations, which have repeatedly accused the Egyptian authorities of “deliberate medical negligence against inmates.”

In 2021, 60 political detainees died inside Egyptian prisons, according to rights group We Record.

Since he took office in 2014, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has launched an arrest campaign against all his opponents; a move that has been condemned internationally by governments and human rights organisations.

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