Egypt’s prisoners face death in excessively hot cells

Ahmad Hasan, 40, never thought that the few words he wrote on Facebook criticising the living conditions in Egypt would lead to his death. His mobile phone was searched, and he was arrested and thrown into a tiny cell in Qasr Al-Nil Police Department in central Cairo, along with dozens of criminals held on other charges.

Severe overcrowding and high temperatures this month led to difficult health conditions for him, in addition to the lack of medical care at one of the most ill-reputable of police departments. He suffered from shortness of breath, lack of oxygen and, ultimately, a brain haemorrhage. He was transferred in a critical condition to Al-Munira Hospital, and from there his body was taken to Zeinhom Mortuary.

Extreme heat in prison cells in Egypt has been the cause of death of dozens of prisoners. The cells lack adequate ventilation and in very high temperatures infections spread easily. Prisoners have poor medical care and are subjected to abuse and torture by a security apparatus known for its iron fist.

About 25 prisoners are held inside what’s known as “the refrigerator”; not one of them can fully extend his legs due to overcrowding in the room. It gets no sunlight or fresh air, with just a small wire-covered window which barely allows a glimmer of faint light in, which does not ease the pain and fear of almost certain death.

The refrigerator is a detention room inside the police station. It is tiny, poorly ventilated and crowded beyond its capacity.

Even the exhaust fan in the ceiling works at the command of the jailer. It is not an “official” detention room and is not subject to any external supervision. Detainees are kept there illegally, and are often people who have been “disappeared” by the Egyptian authorities.

A human rights source, who requested anonymity, told me that two prisoners died two weeks ago inside the Qasr Al-Nil Police Station due to overcrowding, lack of ventilation, heavy smoking and lack of medical care. He noted that the causes of death are usually kept secret, and death certificates are issued for the victims stating that a severe drop in blood circulation was the cause.

Mohamed Fathi — a pseudonym — said that in addition to injustice and fear, political detainees must deal with the summer heat in the so-called refrigerator. The single small fan in the ceiling is not enough when more than 25 prisoners are in the room; it’s worse for the elderly and those with chronic diseases. The average area available to each prisoner on the floor of the cell is about 1.1 square metres, which is much less than the minimum recommended at 3.4 square metres, according to Amnesty International.

In police station cells it is difficult to shower regularly, and drinking water is hot in the summer. This doubles the suffering of the prisoners held between 4 cement walls and a concrete floor, without a good means of cooling that can cope with the unprecedented high temperatures that Egypt has witnessed in recent summers. Temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, and reaching 50 in some areas, are common.

A former detainee at the Marg Police Station, north east of Cairo, talked about witnessing the death of a prisoner there due to overcrowding and suffocating conditions in the building’s detention centre. The power was out for more than four hours, and air conditioners stopped working, leading to the death of the prisoner who suffocated, according to the Egyptian Front for Human Rights, an independent organisation based in the Czech Republic.

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In addition to the heat and severe overcrowding, prisoners are exposed to psychological pressure, especially if they are detained on charges of a political nature. They can be summoned for interrogation at night, denied visits and prevented from meeting their lawyer, not to mention being subjected to torture, threatened to be fired from work, or having their children arrested.

Prisoners may remain in these overly hot cells and not leave them for days or weeks. They may develop a fever or suffer from heat exhaustion without receiving any medical attention. This is what happened to Abdel Rahman Daif, who fell into a coma after a stroke while being held in a cell in the Hehia Police Station in the Sharqia Governorate. He died in June 2019, according to the Adala Foundation for Human Rights.

Three other prisoners died inside the detention centre of the Shubra El-Kheima First Station in 2015, after suffering shortness of breath and fainting due to the heatwave and the overcrowding.

Some cells have more than three times the number of prisoners than their capacity, human rights groups have reported.

Prisoners try primitive methods to deal with the heat, such as using towels as fans, or wetting their clothes with water, but the overcrowding, heavy sweating and lack of ventilation outlets are too much for such efforts.

One human rights group report — “Death in Egyptian Detention Facilities comes with Premeditation and Deliberation” — documents an increase in deaths reported inside various detention facilities, during the rule of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

AM was arrested from his home and taken to an unknown location for twelve days. This arrest ended with the National Security Services summoning his wife to inform her that he had died and to order her to bury him without a proper funeral. This is a scenario that repeats itself with every person who dies after being arrested by the same agency, which issues the death certificates, without clarifying the real cause of death, according to the Egyptian Front for Human Rights.

The situation is relatively better in central prisons, which have spacious cells and rooms, and allow their prisoners daily exercise periods, the possibility of purchasing fans and air conditioners, and bringing in ice cream, juice and refreshments. Such allowances vary, of course, according to the identity of the prisoners, whether they are criminal or political, and the nature of the charges for which they are being held. For example, criminal prisoners are allowed to bring in fans during the summer. As for political detainees, the heat may be an additional punishment for them.

In June alone, seven deaths were reported in police stations and prisons due to medical negligence, high temperatures and power outages, in cells that have more than three times their capacity in terms of number of people crammed inside. In the same month, the Egyptian Network for Human Rights revealed that hundreds of patients and elderly people in Badr 1 Prison suffered from health issues due to the intense heat and power outages.

Nine people died in various detention facilities in July, bringing the number of deaths in Egyptian prisons since the beginning of this year, and at the time of writing, to 32, for various reasons, most notably medical negligence. This is the silent killer in Egypt.

From time to time, the Egyptian Interior Ministry organises promotional visits to improve the image of its prisons. It stresses that the prison sector has recently witnessed developments in all of its main components, and that they provide all aspects of integrated health care for inmates inside the prison hospitals with modern equipment and technology allowing them to offer the best health care.

However, political researcher Mohamed Gomaa drew attention to the fact that inspection visits to prisons are arranged in advance.

They are not the impromptu visits that they appear to be.

Also, such visits do not take place in Egypt’s many secret prisons or detention rooms under the control of sovereign agencies, which makes it likely that violations and abuses take place in their cells.

Human rights groups estimate that hundreds of people have died in detention centres since the military coup on 3 July, 2013. The Egyptian authorities, however, hide the numbers of the victims, and say that the data issued by human rights organisations is biased and aims to tarnish the reputation of Al-Sisi and his regime.

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