Press release, CFJ
Geneva: October 4, 2023
The Committee for Justice has documented two cases of deaths among detainees in connection with political cases inside the Tenth of Ramadan Men’s Prison in the Sharkia Governorate in Egypt, bringing the total number of deaths inside detention facilities and prisons in Egypt to 31 this year.
Death due to medical negligence:
The first case involves a political detainee named Kamel Shadid Shahin (69 years old), who passed away on Friday, September 29th, due to deliberate medical neglect within his detention. He hails from Kafr Menaouhla in El-Bagour Center in the Menoufia Governorate, is a graduate of the Faculty of Petroleum and Mining, and has 7 children. He had been in detention for 5 years.
Death after prolonged pretrial detention:
The second case is the death of the young man Alaa Fathallah Abu Hikal, on Saturday, September 30th. He was detained in connection with Case No. 662 of 2020, known in the media as the “Borg El-Maghizel Fishermen” case. His detention, along with others, has been renewed for more than 3 years without being presented to the court, in violation of Egypt’s pretrial detention laws.
Call for investigations:
CFJ holds the Egyptian Ministry of Interior and the Prison Authority fully responsible for these two deaths and calls for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding them and the accountability of those responsible. CFJ also urges the Egyptian authorities to release all individuals who have exceeded their pretrial detention periods and to stop using it as a weapon against anyone opposing or exposing human rights violations in the country.
31 Deaths in 2023:
With the above two cases, the number of deaths documented by CFJ within Egyptian prisons and detention facilities since the beginning of 2023 has risen to 31. The most recent case was that of a citizen named Ibrahim El-Sayed Abdel-Motaleb El-Sheikh (56 years old), who passed away in his detention cell at Abu Zaabal Prison due to harsh detention conditions and medical neglect. He was an anesthesiologist from the village of Fasha Salim in Tanta Center, residing in Basyoun City in the Gharbia Governorate. He had three children and had been in detention since 2020.
Accurate information about death cases during detention in Egypt can be obtained through the Justice Watch Archive service provided by CFJ, which contains information about more than 14,000 victims and over 30,000 violations. It also monitors violations inside more than 500 places of detention in Egypt.