10/08/2021
On March 9, 2020, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior banned prison visits under the pretext of curbing the spread of COVID-19. Three months into the ban, 69 year-old Amira Tawfiq could no longer stand being unable to communicate with her son in jail. So she travelled from Alexandria where she lives, to Tora prison (known as Scorpion) in Cairo. She waited for hours at the prison gate, but was not allowed to see her son. She lost consciousness while on her way back home, and passed away without hearing from him, neither by letter nor by phone.
The Egyptian authorities prohibit family contact from the moment a
person is arrested; On December 23, 2018, Ahmed Abdel Nabi (60 years
old) called his grandchildren from inside the plane bound for
Cyprus, telling them that it was about to take off and that he was
coming to visit them. The call was ended abruptly after one of the
crew members asked him to step off the plane. He was arrested and
detained in Tora maximum security prison 2, or the Scorpion, which
is earmarked for political prisoners and criminal offenders.
According to human rights organizations, Ahmed Abdel Nabi remained
there until his death on September 2, 2020.
Nasiba, Abdel Nabi’s daughter said: "During Abdel Nabi’s detention,
the prison administration banned any contact with him. It denied him
visits, correspondences and calls." His family filed a lawsuit in
May 2019. However, the prison’s Internal Planning and Research
Department told the court that due to “security reasons”, “inmates
in ward (B) were denied visits for three months, including Ahmed
Abdel Nabi.”
The Ministry of Interior and the Prison Authority denied hundreds of
detainees their constitutional right to contact their families and
lawyers by any means (visits, letters, phone calls) based on vague
legal texts with no explanation of the reasons thereof. Some court
decisions were also ignored with the support of the Public
Prosecution office. Some detainees passed away before they could
have the chance to meet their families.
The author of this investigation has conducted interviews with
relatives and lawyers of 11 inmates, during which they recounted
their efforts to reestablish contact with the prisoners inside
detention facilities. In addition, a questionnaire was filled
containing 11 samples has demonstrated a complete severance of
contact during a visit ban imposed by the Ministry of Interior to
combat the Corona virus in early March and until August 2020.
THE TIMBERS’ thumping rhythms and big misty mountain melodies will cast you away to a sweaty, smoky, melting-pot of folk, roots and Celtic bushman brassy punk. They rollick and hammer their way through live gigs with abundant energy and have become festival favourites throughout Australia.
THE TIMBERS’ thumping rhythms and big misty mountain melodies will cast you away to a sweaty, smoky, melting-pot of folk, roots and Celtic bushman brassy punk. They rollick and hammer their way through live gigs with abundant energy and have become festival favourites throughout Australia.
THE TIMBERS’ thumping rhythms and big misty mountain melodies will cast you away to a sweaty, smoky, melting-pot of folk, roots and Celtic bushman brassy punk. They rollick and hammer their way through live gigs with abundant energy and have become festival favourites throughout Australia.
Mahmoud Mohieldin is being held in pretrial detention pending investigations in Case 620 of 2021, the State Security Prosecution
THE TIMBERS’ thumping rhythms and big misty mountain melodies will cast you away to a sweaty, smoky, melting-pot of folk, roots and Celtic bushman brassy punk. They rollick and hammer their way through live gigs with abundant energy and have become festival favourites throughout Australia.
THE TIMBERS’ thumping rhythms and big misty mountain melodies will cast you away to a sweaty, smoky, melting-pot of folk, roots and Celtic bushman brassy punk. They rollick and hammer their way through live gigs with abundant energy and have become festival favourites throughout Australia.
He was executed last May
Banned from visiting, families of inmates do not receive a written refusal. When they raise their case at the administrative court, the Ministry of Interior cites security reasons (for curtailing inmates contacts with their families), without clarifying what these security reasons are, or the party that issued the ban. The prison administration orally informs families that the National Security Agency is the party entirely responsible for bans and permits. Human Rights Watch (HRW), which monitors violations around the world, confirms the statements made by the families.
From March to August 2020
outside of that period
before 2020
Visits were prohibited in Scorpion and Liman Tora prisons for
approximately 18 months. Amnesty International recorded at least 61
cases of inmates at Tora prison in Cairo and Borg al-Arab in
Alexandria who were barred from receiving family visits for up to
two years, according to the findings of "Amnesty International".
Every three months, the Ministry of Interior would issue a decree
banning inmates from receiving visitors, thus extending the period
that separates them from their families and lawyers. These measures
have been in practice for decades using "terrorist threats" as an
excuse, according to a study by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East
Policy (TIMEP) entitled “Effective Communication between the Lawyer
and Defendant and the Right to a Fair Trial.”
Article 42 of the Prison Regulation Law allows for visits to be
restricted or completely banned due to health or security reasons.
According to a HRW report, Interior Ministry officials rely on this
vaguely worded article, unchanged since 1956, to prevent visits at
any time without explaining the reasons thereof.
For example, the court overturned the decision to deny Abdel Nabi
any visits, as the prison did not provide evidence of any visits
paid to him by any of his family members even prior to the decision
to deny inmates of ward B the right to receive visitors. The court
even ruled that the decision to deny him visit was absolute and
indetermined in violation of the laws and constitution.
Seven years ago, the family of the leader of "Al-Wasat" party, Essam
Sultan, was surprised by a decision to ban regular visits of inmates
in wards (4,3,2) in the Scorpion prison, and the automatic renewal
thereof. For this reason, Sultan’s family referred the matter to the
Public Prosecutor who granted them permission to see him, provided
that he is not detained in the prohibited wards. Thus, the Public
Prosecutor approved of the detention and the visit ban, and any
permission granted to the family was pointless.
The Public Prosecutor having failed them, Sultan’s family turned to
the judiciary, which recognized the unconstitutionality of these
decisions, as was stated in the verdict: "A permanent visit ban
denies a prisoner his basic right as a social being by nature, which
is detrimental to his humanity and morally harmful to his
well-being. It is also inconsistent with the constitution.”
Despite the court rulings that did justice to Abdel Nabi and Essam Sultan, the director of prisons and the warden of the Scorpion prison flouted the decisions and continued to ban visits. The families referred the court’s decision to the Ministers of Justice and Interior, but nothing changed. Abdel Nabi died without meeting his family and grandchildren.
Two weeks before his death, he could no longer eat. His eyes would
bleed, and blood clots would come out from his mouth. In prison, he
developed diabetes, hemiplegia on the left side of his body, and
kidney stones. He suffered a stroke, not to mention his long term
liver disease ailment, but he was still denied access to adequate
medical care in jail. The Forensic Medicine Authority stated in the
burial certificate that the cause of death was “under
investigation,” according to a statement by the Egyptian Front for
Human Rights.
Sultan's lawyers wanted to file a lawsuit against the Minister of
Interior for failure to implement a court ruling, but they didn’t
for fear of arrest, according to one lawyer who preferred to remain
anonymous.
The Director of the Legislative and Judicial Reform Project at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), Mohamed Obeid, says that a blanket visit ban is a double punishment and torture, not only for prisoners, but also for their innocent family members. It is like giving the prisoner a new sentence, not through a court ruling, but rather by virtue of administrative decisions issued by the executive power represented by the Ministry of Interior.
visit/week
visit duration: 60 minutes
calls/month
call duration: 3 minutes
Calls at any time
visit/15 days
visit duration: 60 minutes
calls/month
call duration: 3 minutes
letters/month
The lawyer of a prisoner shall be allowed to meet with him alone (Law No. 396 for 1956 Concerning the Organization of Prisons)
In 1994, a court ruled the visit ban inside the Scorpion prison
unconstitutional. However, the Ministry of Interior ignored the
court’s order to restore visits and kept the ban in place for nearly
a decade despite the issuance of 112 rulings against it, according
to HRW.
Ahmed Mufreh, Executive Director of Committee for Justice, said,
“From our continuous follow-up, (64/2017 military, 123/2018
military, 148/2017 military), the Prison Authority continues to
renew the visit bans for 20 detainees by virtue of decisions by the
Public Prosecution. These inmates are divided between Tora High
Security Prison (Scorpion), Tora Istiqbal (reception), and Tora
investigation.
Obeid said that this sentence in the letter was referring to a
previous decision to deny the prisoners in the wards attached to the
aforementioned prisons any visits. The sentence was pre-printed,
which means that it is a template used for visit permits. Also, it
did not specify whether the decision was issued by the Public
Prosecution office, or the Ministry of Interior, both of which have
the authority to do so.
Obeid added that printing a template permit with this unified
preamble means the approval of the decision or its extension for a
long period, which violates the constitution and the law. It may be
challenged before the Administrative Court for its illegality. Obeid
shared the opinion of the CEO of the Egyptian Front for Human
Rights, Karim Taha, who said that the Prosecution approved of the
long-term visit bans.
Dozens of inmates were barred from receiving any visits in certain
prisons, like the Scorpion and others, which makes them go on hunger
strikes to protest their living conditions.
United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights in Egypt
2019
In mid-June 2019, 130 detainees went on hunger strike in the
Scorpion prison for more than six weeks as a protest to denying them
family visits. Many of those on strike were arrested more than two
years ago and have not been allowed a single visit from their
families or lawyers. Authorities retaliated by beating them. At
least 10 hunger-strikers were blindfolded and transferred to special
cells where they were locked up all day without any breaks.
Several detainees had previously gone on hunger strikes in October
2017 and February 2018 and ended their protests on the basis of
assurances that they would be allowed family visits, but these
promises were never kept, according to Amnesty International.
The Egyptian Coordination committee for Rights and Freedoms
documented that in 2019, detainees in several prisons went on hunger
strike to express their rage over several violations, including
denial of family visits.
Since the start of the lockdown due to Covid-19, thousands of
inmates have been kept in detention without any access to the
outside world. Authorities often deny detainees permission to
receive letters from their relatives according to "human rights
watch".
From March 9 to August 2020, detainees were reportedly infected with
coronavirus. 11 people and a lawyer confirmed that they were denied
the right to visit inmates during this period, and 9 confirmed that
they did not even receive a single written letter from their loved
ones inside the prison.
For three consecutive weeks, the administration of Tora maximum
security prison 2 (The Scorpion) banned Laila Soueif from receiving
any “letters” to assure her of her son’s health inside. Visits were
suspended to stem the spread of coronavirus, with no means of
communication other than written letters.
On June 21, 2020, Laila began a sit-in at the prison gate. She
spread a mat and held a sign entitled “I want a letter.” She was
later joined by her two daughters. At dawn, a group of unknown women
beat, drag and rob them in full view of prison personnel.
They headed to the Public Prosecutor's Office to showcase the injuries and file a complaint accusing the prison administration of orchestrating the assault to force them to break their sit-in. Policemen took Sana from the vicinity of the Public Prosecutor's Office for investigation, and she was subsequently sentenced to one and a half years in prison for spreading false news.
“Sanaa was not the only one,” said Mr Mufreh, Director of the
Committee for Justice. He explained that the documentation team had
found that security forces had arrested five female relatives of
detainees. The Maadi Prosecution office convicted them of several
charges including staging an (illegal) gathering. Then they were
released on bail of 2000 Egyptian pounds. They were also sentenced
in absentia to one month in prison.
The Public Prosecutor and the Ministry of Interior agreed 13 years
ago to provide inmates with a telephone service, but that is still
unavailable. Karim Taha, Executive Director of the Egyptian Front
for Human Rights, said there were at least 3 recommendations from
Germany, the Netherlands and Britain insisting on the right of
prisoners to communicate with their families, but to no avail.
The Egyptian Front for Human Rights published a sample of the statements of defendants who proved their complaints during their detention renewal hearings before the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
I want to prove that I am on hunger strike because I am being ill-treated. I accuse the prison administration of committing systematic violations against me, and of flouting the decisions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding visit permits.
Ahmed Bashar informed the Public Prosecutor of the following: "I want to see and speak with my family as visits are prohibited. I have not communicated with them since the day I was detained."
190 defendants distributed across seven prisons, charged in seven
cases, filed a complaint during their detention renewal hearings
before the Public Prosecution office against:
- The prison administration for banning them from seeing their
families, and for refusing to carry out the orders of the Public
Prosecution office regarding permits of visits and contact.
- Several defendants informed the Prosecution office that the prison
administration was tearing up the Prosecution office's permits.
The complaints of the defendants found no response, even when
repeated, which provoked 33 defendants to go on hunger strike
| No. | Case number | Detention prisons |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 123 of 2018 East Cairo Military Offences | Tora Maximum Security 2 (Scorpion 2) |
| 2 | 137 of 2018 North Cairo Military Offences | Tora Maximum Security (Scorpion) - Tora Reception |
| 3 | 148 of 2017 North Cairo Military Offences | Tora Reception - Scorpion - Punitive Institution |
| 4 | 64 of 2017 North Cairo Military Offences | Scorpion 2 |
| 5 | 247 of 2016 East Cairo Military Offences | Tora Reception - Scorpion |
| 6 | 301 of 2016 Student Felonies | Tora Reception - Tora Investigation – Al-Qanater men - kilo 10 and a half - the penal institution |
| 7 | 506 of 2014 East Cairo University | Tora Reception - Scorpion |
| - | Total | 7 prisons |
Click to view the prison name.
Until this moment, prisoners are held in a prison like the Scorpion, in cells for which visit bans are predetermined, deprived of any human right to communicate with the world, without any consideration for court decisions.
*nickname
