Several questions raised by the killing of officers and 4 prisoners sentenced to death inside Tora prison, south of Cairo, yesterday, Wednesday, amid doubts and questions from human rights defenders and activists about the official version announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior.
The suspicion about the incident and the exclusion of it being merely an escape accident added to the fact that the Egyptian Interior Minister and army commanders made a rare visit to the prison where the accident occurred, amid tight security reinforcements.
Media sources said that the Egyptian Ministry of Interior decided to open extensive investigations into the incident, and to form an investigation team from the Inspection, Control and National Security sectors to conduct the investigation into the incident and listen to the statements of the police forces in the prison and some inmates and examine the surveillance cameras, and the statements of the leaders of Tora prison area and those injured in the accident will also be heard .
Yesterday, Wednesday, the Egyptian security authorities announced the killing of 4 prisoners sentenced to death after trying to escape from Tora prison in Cairo, and the killing of two officers and a recruiter while confronting them, and wounding others, and a fourth policeman died later of his injury.
The Egyptian Ministry of Interior said in its version of the incident that “4 of those sentenced to death and those in death row in Tora prison tried to escape from inside the prison, and the security force confronted them, resulting in the death of two officers and one police officer, and the death of the four convicts,” without giving further details about The fact.
The prisoners were “Mr. Atta Muhammad, Ammar Al-Shahat Muhammad Al-Sayyid, Hassan Zakaria, Motamed Morsi, and Madih Ramadan Hassan Ala El-Din.”
Losses among the police, and victims among the detainees
What happened in the Tora prison area?
pic.twitter.com/ZqelxRsYos
- Monitoring Network (@RassdNewsN) September 24, 2020
Commentators on social media have expressed doubts about the official version that was initially reported by the media close to the authority, given the tight security with which the Tora prison area, south of Cairo, is known.
Former prisoners ruled out the Interior Ministry's account, especially since weapons are forbidden inside the prison wards, and some of them assumed that the accident occurred during an inspection visit from abroad, especially with the possibility of quarrels and clashes due to ill-treatment, while some of them talked about the possibility of prisoners kidnapping officers before the clashes took place.
Some of the tweeters accused the Egyptian authorities of orchestrating the incident to spread more intimidation and fear, facing the ongoing demonstrations since September 20, which activists escalated towards calling for major demonstrations on Friday, but others rejected this scenario, considering its owners are dominated by the conspiracy theory.
The true story, the
massacre took place during an
inspection
visit by the
Prisons Authority
to Scorpion Prison
as a measure to disturb the detainees
because outside the street there are demonstrations and I do not
understand the relationship between the two matters.
A quarrel occurred during the inspection that
developed rapidly resulting in the killing and injury of the members of the committee
.
- Haytham Abokhalil (@ haythamabokhal1) September 24, 2020
The truth of what happened in Tora prison, State Security officers tried to take 4 of the detainees to carry out terrorist operations against them, so the police officers refused, so a clash occurred and they were killed. # Leave_Passi_Gathering_Fury_September 25
- waelsamir (@waelsamir_wael) September 24, 2020
What happened yesterday in Tora Black prison in the world, and the problem of the two days is states that have anxiety, and in people that will mobilize and apply the emergency law, so an advice that no one comes down to two days is countries, and our Lord transgresses it for the good of all
- Ziad Al-Shaheedi ツ (@zyadmaherr) September 24, 2020
# Al-Sisi_the enemy
of
God, the
Interior has liquidated two officers opposed to the killing and torture of prisoners, and as a result of that there was discontent among their colleagues and the leaders of the Interior Ministry, which closed all prisons in Tora Prison and raised the state of emergency to the highest degree and sent special forces to the place, which clashed with the intercepting prison officers, which led to the killing of three pic. twitter.com/EZd5lYxnX5
- E m an mima (@ 88mesa9000) September 23, 2020
What does it mean to have a large prison like Tora, where officers and prisoners are killed?
Who is imprisoned by the other?
- Al-Qarmouty (@officialkarmoty) September 24, 2020
In the same context, three international human rights organizations expressed their reservations regarding the Egyptian Ministry of Interior's version of what happened in Tora prison, and these organizations are the Istanbul-based Adalah for Human Rights, the London-based Shehab Center for Human Rights, in addition to the London-based Salam International Organization for the Protection of Human Rights.
In a joint statement, the organizations attributed their reservation to the fact that the incident is unprecedented inside the prisons, especially Tora prison, which is known for the impossibility of escaping incidents due to the great security precautions there.
The three organizations said that without explaining the circumstances of the incident in a neutral and transparent manner, hundreds and thousands of detainees may be subjected to harassment under the pretext of revenge for the killings that occurred.
These organizations held the Public Prosecution Office responsible for investigating the incident impartially and informing the public of the results of the investigations.