Abdullah Hamed - Cairo

The public prosecutor's statement issued regarding the death of the young political prisoner, director Shadi Habash, 24, summoned the details of the prosecutor's statement ten years ago regarding the death of the young Khaled Said, whose page had bombed the January 2011 revolution.

Activists and human rights activists compared the two official accounts that held the two victims (Habash and Saeed) responsible for their deaths, as Shadi Habash mixed alcohol purified with soda to turn it into an intoxicant that he died in, a situation similar to the accusation of the young Khaled Said that he swallowed the narcotic pango roll and died in it.

The difference between the two cases is that the former was lucky to take pictures of him after his head was smashed by police officers, as evidence destroying the official account, while the second died in prison and no one was able to photograph his end, except for eyewitnesses.

According to activists and human rights activists, the statement of the Public Prosecution regarding the death of the artist Shadi Habash in his prison in Tora prison involved various inconsistencies that tried "in vain" to absolve the prison administration of responsibility for his killing.

Shadi was arrested, along with six others, for writing, directing, and publishing a satirical song by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The Egyptian Public Prosecution said that it asked three of the deceased's companions in the room in which he was imprisoned, so their statements came identical and confirmed that he took a mixture of soft water and purified alcohol, entered him in successive episodes of trouble and received treatment by prison doctors until he passed away.

The Public Prosecutor ordered the completion of investigations, and the assignment of a forensic doctor to dissect the body of the deceased to explain the direct cause that led to his death, and if his body had any injuries, cause, method, and date of occurrence, if any, and to take a visceral sample from him to show the extent that it contained any narcotic, intoxicating, or toxic substances or Alcoholic or not, and in the case of its existence, an indication of the extent of its cause of his death, the extent of the occurrence of the occurrence according to the photocopy that resulted in investigations to date, as well as an indication of the correctness of the medical procedures taken by the two doctors who signed the examination.

Activists criticized the statement, saying that it condemns the prison system.

Jurists said that the public prosecutor’s statement on the death of Shadi Habash raises a number of questions, including that the persistence of his troubles for a long time confirms the existence of medical negligence, as well as the contradiction of witness accounts, with no indication that his detention exceeded the two-year period as the law says.

A statement signed by nine Egyptian human rights organizations said that the way the young director Shadi Habash died in his prison in Tora prison in Cairo on the second of this month, additional evidence of condemnation of the extent to which law enforcement officials in Egypt neglect the lives of citizens and the rule of law, and the spread of revenge tendencies from all critics of the regime Current from different groups and ages.

The circumstances of the death also provide a new proof of the deteriorating conditions of the Egyptian prisons and the lack of health care there, especially in light of the testimonies received that continue to seek help from their colleague for long hours without success.

The statement continued that the death of Shadi Habash was the third in Anbar 4 in Tora prison among prisoners of conscience of young people in less than 10 months, which means that it does not constitute an exception, but rather embodies a pattern prevailing in most Egyptian prisons, but rather in the administration of the justice file in Egypt in general During the last seven years.

The organizations that signed the statement demanded the opening of a serious and independent investigation into the causes of death and the responsibility of the Public Prosecution for the continued detention of Shadi and others for more than 26 months without pre-trial detention in violation of the law.

The organizations renewed their demand to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect the conditions of Egyptian prisons and determine their conditions after the frightening increase in deaths associated with medical neglect, and to form a national mechanism of independent human rights organizations to organize unannounced visits to prisons, and to ensure that they implement all required measures of separation, cleanliness and prevention required, Especially in light of the deadly Covid-19 epidemic.

It also called for the speedy release of all those held in detention in order to reduce the accumulation in prisons in light of the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, especially those detained on the background of accusations related to freedom of opinion and creativity or being held in connection with political issues.

The organizations expressed grave concern about the psychological and physical integrity of the rest of detainees at Anbar 4 prison in Tora prison after they witnessed more than one inmate among them without anyone paying attention, noting that some of them exceeded the legal periods of pre-trial detention, which necessitates their immediate release.

The statement stressed that the death of Shadi Habash will not be the last as long as the Egyptian authorities insisted on ignoring calls for national, international and international human rights to release some prisoners in order to reduce prison overcrowding, especially those held in detention and threatened with medical neglect.

According to a joint human rights report published at the end of last year, 449 prisoners died in places of detention during the period between mid-2014 to the end of 2018, and this number increased to 917 prisoners between mid-2013 to the end of 2019, an excessive increase during 2019, according to the latest human rights update Among them, 677 were the result of medical negligence.