In the scene of the film innocent .. The Egyptian regime beautifies its image in front of the international accusations

In 1985, Egyptian realist director Atef El Tayeb presented one of his most important works, the innocent film starring Ahmed Zaki and Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, considered by critics to be one of the 100 most important films in the history of Egyptian cinema.

The film, which talks about the repression of freedoms, political corruption and torture in prisons, illustrates in one of the paradoxes between the official talk of respect for human rights and the dire reality of detainees.

This scene is always used by human rights activists at every government announcement of a prison visit to inspect the conditions of prisoners. Local and international human rights organizations accuse the Egyptian authorities of expanding human rights violations against political detainees, while Cairo denies the accusations.

Prisons Forum

On Monday, the Ministry of Interior organized the "Third Forum of Prisons" in the presence of a number of assistant ministers and members of the House of Representatives and representatives of the United Nations and the African Union, in addition to a number of local and international media.

Local media reported that the forum included "explaining the health care aspects of the prisoners, the scale of development within Gaza's hospitals and the concern for human rights, the kitchen of food preparation, as well as the response to rumors about the places of detention recently."

"The visit took place in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior to familiarize foreign correspondents and Egyptian journalists with prison conditions and to treat detainees inside them. Journalists are allowed to pass through all prisons and take video or photographs of conversations with prisoners without restriction," said Diaa Rashwan, head of the State Information Service. .

The government official pointed out that "the Ministry of Interior took a new approach to open the way for the media more."

The State Information Service (SIS) aired yesterday a video of a visit by a delegation from the Public Prosecution to Tora Prison south of Cairo.

The video drew ridicule and widespread criticism from human rights activists in Egypt and many pioneers of social networking sites.

It is noteworthy that the video was translated into English, indicating that it was directed primarily to the international community.It was remarkable that the visit included a prison, not the detention centers of the National Security Agency, in which activists say that torture is mainly carried out and not in prisons. Torture is practiced in other forms, such as solitary confinement, confinement of prisoners in confined spaces, harassment, denial of visits, and deliberate negligence.

From attack to defense

The current prison activity coincided with a media campaign on the human rights situation.It is noteworthy that the campaign shifted from attacking only local and international human rights organizations - as usual during the previous six years since the military coup in summer 2013 - to defending the regime and using quiet language against political detainees. And calls for the need to interact with international accusations and respond to documents and not just criticism and attack.

For his part, anchor close to the security services, Ahmed Mousa, spoke about the health conditions of the prisoners, wishing a speedy recovery for all of them, admitting that the prisons have negatives because they are the ultimate prisons and not five-star hotels.

Another broadcaster close to the Authority, Amr Adib, spoke about the need to respond in detail to all international accusations of human rights, stressing that it is not right to cite the praise of international organizations for what he described the growth of the Egyptian economy, and ignore the criticism of human rights.

In a telephone conversation with Adib, the head of the State Information Service stressed the need to respond to international reports on human rights, adding: "We declare what we have, because we are part of a large world."

Rashwan hoped that "this will become an approach complemented by the state, regardless of the international review of human rights, because of the facts that it is not in their interest to hide, or let others play in the international arena at their expense, taking into account that Egypt is not an ideal society like any other." .

He pointed out that the Egyptian delegation in Geneva will respond to the international accusations about the death of the late President Mohamed Morsi, during a comprehensive periodic review of the Egyptian regime file at the United Nations in Geneva today and tomorrow.

This is the third review that Egypt is expected to submit since its submission to this UN mechanism, in which UN member states voluntarily discuss and assess their human rights situation through the universal periodic review mechanism.

International pressure

Two days ago, a statement by the Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Executions and the UN Panel on Arbitrary Detention said that the prison system in Egypt may have led directly to the death of President Mohamed Morsi, and that thousands of detainees may suffer serious violations and risk death.

Kalamar gave the Egyptian government sixty days to answer the multiple questions posed by independent UN experts, stressing the need for an independent investigation into Morsi's death away from the authorities, because post-mortem investigations were insufficient and impartial.

During an interview with Al Jazeera, the UN official explained that international law explicitly states that governments are responsible for deaths occurring in detention facilities, as they control all prisoners and are scheduled for their detention.

At the end of October, European Parliamentarians voted to condemn the Egyptian authorities for human rights violations. They condemned the killing of 3,000 people without real trials, including children and women, since the start of the current president.

The Egyptian Action Group for Human Rights, composed of 11 human rights organizations, sent a report to the UN Human Rights Council on serious violations of the authorities during the past five years. As documented in the report, human rights conditions are much worse than when Cairo pledged to respect human rights before the Council at its 2014 review session.

ridicule

The coincidence of the media campaign and the activity of the Egyptian prisons - on human rights with the increasing international criticism of the government - raised the cynicism of the pioneers of the communication sites, where some stressed that it is just an attempt by the regime to beautify its image internationally, while others shared pictures from inside the prisons showing the real face of it.