Egyptian authorities must end their reprisals against prisoners in 10th of Ramadan Prison for their hunger strike to protest their arbitrary detention and demand an end to their cruel and inhuman detention conditions, Amnesty International said today.
Since early January, a number of detainees at 10th of Ramadan (6) Prison started a hunger strike to demand the release of individuals held in pretrial detention for more than six months, the right to outdoor exercise, full visitation rights, and the removal of the National Security Agency (NSA) officer in charge of the prison, whom they accuse of being abusive. In the aftermath of the strike, authorities transferred at least three detainees from 10th of Ramadan (6) Prison to prisons notorious for their harsh detention conditions, after punitively confiscating their personal belongings.
“Instead of addressing the abysmal detention conditions in the 10th of Ramadan Prison, the authorities are trying to silence prisoners protesting these conditions by punishing them. Even when prisoners are held in newly built, modern prisons such as 10th of Ramadan, they still suffer abuse at the hands of prison authorities who operate without adequate oversight or accountability,” said Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt Researcher at Amnesty International.
“Instead of addressing the abysmal detention conditions in the 10th of Ramadan Prison, the authorities are trying to silence prisoners protesting these conditions by punishing them” – Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt Researcher
“The Egyptian authorities must ensure that conditions of detention are humane and in line with international law and standards, including the Nelson Mandela Rules. They must respond to longstanding calls by Amnesty International and Egyptian human rights defenders to allow independent Egyptian and international observers to have unfettered and unannounced access to prisons and to monitor detention conditions in the country.”
Two women family members of the transferred detainees told Amnesty International that authorities had moved their relatives to prisons located hundreds of kilometres away from their families. The transfer to remote prisons, known as “Taghriba” (internal exile), is a common punitive measure used by the authorities to punish prisoners and render visitation even more costly and burdensome for their families.
“When they escorted him from his cell at 10th of Ramadan (6) Prison, he thought they were finally taking him to the hospital for long overdue surgery. Instead, they were transferring him to another prison,” a relative of one of the detainees told Amnesty International. She said that he was punished solely for attempting to send a letter to a political party that he is a member of, urging them to advocate for his release.
The third detainee went on hunger strike on 29 January to protest his transfer. His lawyer told Amnesty International that upon transfer, he was placed in an overcrowded cell, where detainees are forced to sleep in shifts. On 18 February, authorities failed to bring him to his pretrial detention renewal session, however, judges renewed his detention in his absence, without providing any justification. On 1 March, his wife posted on Facebook that he had ended his strike and remains hospitalized within the prison.
Brutal detention conditions
Three lawyers and three relatives of detainees held at 10th of Ramadan (6) Prison told Amnesty International that all inmates inside their wards are totally deprived of sunlight because they are not permitted daily exercise outdoors as required by the Mandela Rules. Nada Mougeeth, the wife of arbitrarily detained cartoonist Ashraf Omar, said that he has not seen the sun in seven months. According to Nada and the relatives of the two transferred prisoners, detainees are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day. They are allowed a maximum of one hour of exercise in a corridor inside the building where they are held.
Under Egypt’s Internal Bylaws on Prisons, pretrial detainees are allowed two hours of exercise out of their cell daily.
On 3 February, economist Abdel Khalek Farouq, also held in 10th of Ramadan prison for political reasons, told prosecutors that after he complained to prison officials about not being allowed to exercise in sunlight, he was moved, along with two other detainees, to another cell in an isolated and empty ward, according to a member of his family. He also said that a police officer threatened to transfer him to Sohag Prison, located around 500 kilometres away from Cairo where his family live.
Nada and the two relatives told Amnesty International that family visits to the prison are limited to only 20 or 30 minutes once per month, except if there is an exceptional visit. This violates the prison bylaws, which provides for weekly one-hour visits for pretrial detainees and twice monthly visits for convicted prisoners. Some detainees are denied family visits altogether. For instance, Anas al-Belgaty, who has been arbitrarily detained for 11 years solely for his family affiliation, has received no visits since his transfer to 10th of Ramadan (2) prison in June 2023.
Nada and the two relatives also reported being frequently subjected to invasive body searches by female guards. They said that the guards search women twice before they enter the visit hall, including through placing their hands inside the women’s clothing, touching their bras.
They also reported that prison guards inspect the food brought by families using their bare hands in an unhygienic manner. Food brought by families is the main source of nutrition for detainees due to the lack of quality or insufficient portions provided by the prison.
Background
10th of Ramadan Prison began to operate in 2023 amid a public relations campaign by the government promoting it as a step toward improving detention conditions.
On 12 January, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) published a statement about the deteriorating detention conditions at 10th of Ramadan 6 Prison. Following this statement, on 19 January, prosecutors opened an investigation into prominent human rights defender Hossam Bahgat, executive director of EIPR, on charges of “spreading false news” and “aiding and funding a terrorist group.”
Based on research into 16 prisons across Egypt, Amnesty International previously found that prison officials in Egypt are subjecting prisoners of conscience and others held for political reasons to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment through conditions of detention and are deliberately denying them health care to punish dissent.
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