The Committee for Justice (CFJ) has documented the death of the political detainee Jamal Ahmed Sawi Ibrahim (70 years old) inside Al-Minya Central Prison due to the deterioration of his health condition and lack of access to adequate medical care.
Sources within the victim’s family indicated that the death occurred on Tuesday, June 24, 2025; however, the detainee’s family was not informed until several days later, which constitutes a clear violation of legal and humanitarian procedures obliging authorities to notify families immediately upon any emergency health changes or deaths of detainees.
According to available information, Sawi suffered from severe liver cirrhosis, which further weakened his health during his detention, particularly under the inhumane conditions inside Egyptian prisons and the absence of basic medical services provided to detainees—especially critical cases.
Despite continuous appeals from his family and from Sawi himself requesting permission to transfer him outside the prison for appropriate medical treatment, prison authorities rejected all requests related to medical release or transfer to a civilian hospital.
It is worth noting that Sawi had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case commonly known in media as “Al-Nahda dispersal,” and he spent most of that time inside detention centers. Despite having served more than two-thirds of his sentence, no approval was granted for his medical release, even though he and his family submitted multiple requests for this purpose.
The CFJ affirms that the continued deprivation of medical care for politically detained individuals in Egypt, along with the systematic neglect of their health conditions, constitutes a blatant violation of constitutional articles and international treaties to which Egypt is a party. Furthermore, it amounts to slow torture under harsh detention conditions.
The CFJ calls for an independent, impartial, and prompt investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of detainee Jamal Sawi, and for holding accountable those responsible for the medical negligence that led to his death, ensuring that perpetrators are not allowed to escape punishment.
With this case, the number of deaths documented by the CFJ inside prisons and detention centers in Egypt since the beginning of 2025 has risen to 18. This follows the documentation of 50 deaths during the previous year, 2024.
Verified information about deaths during detention in Egypt can be obtained through the “Justice Watch Archive,” a service provided by the CFJ. It contains information on over 14,000 victims and more than 30,000 violations, monitoring abuses across over 500 detention sites in Egypt
