Spanish newspaper: Egyptian prisons black hole in the time of Corona

The Spanish newspaper El Pais said that the public health crisis Egypt is going through as a result of the spread of the Corona virus will have a negative impact that threatens to kill thousands of prisoners who are in poor conditions in its overcrowded and unsanitary prisons.

The newspaper added in a report to its correspondent in Cairo, Mark Espanyol, that Egypt had exceeded the ceiling of one thousand cases of Corona virus last Saturday, a number which the authorities say is the beginning of a stage with which it is difficult to track transmission chains of the virus.

The newspaper pointed out that as of last Tuesday, the number of injuries had already risen to 1,450, and although no cases were officially registered in prisons, relatives of prisoners, activists and human rights organizations warn that prisoners are not immune from the epidemic.

The World Health Organization has also warned that detention centers are particularly vulnerable to the Corona epidemic, and that conditions of detention can contribute to the spread of infectious diseases of this type.

She emphasized that although there are no official figures on the number of prisoners because of the high secrecy with which the Egyptian regime covers prison administration, the National Council for Human Rights (a semi-official institution) documented in 2015 that the country's prisons are 150% full of capacity.

The newspaper quoted the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the "Committee of Justice" - a human rights association based in Geneva - that hundreds of detainees had died in recent years behind bars, most of them due to medical neglect.

"The prisons of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi are already terribly inhumane and the spread of the Corona virus makes detention conditions an urgent humanitarian issue," said Amy Hawthorne, deputy director of research for the Middle East Democracy Project.

Outage of communication
The newspaper pointed out that in early March, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced the suspension of visits to prisoners as part of its measures to prevent the virus from leaking into detention centers.

Concurrently with that move, judicial hearings were suspended for the same reasons, as contact with prisoners was interrupted and the flow of information about what was happening in prisons was almost completely stopped, he told Elbais newspaper, people close to some of the prisoners.

"We knew the conditions of the prisoners through the people who were allowed to visit, and since most of the prisoners are not visited by anyone, we knew more about our loved ones when they appeared in court," said Nusseibah Ahmed, daughter of Ahmed Abdel Nabi, who is detained in Tora Prison in Cairo and known as the highest security measures.

The measures imposed by the Ministry of Interior impede the delivery of hygiene products to prisoners, although they are always subject to inspection by prison staff, according to the prisoners' families.

However, prisoners continue to contact prison authorities, and in some cases their relatives are allowed to deliver cash and tobacco products through guards, which may facilitate the spread of the virus.

Without logic
"It seems that there is no logic, there is logic for some and no logic for others," says French Celine LeBron, wife of prominent Palestinian activist Rami Shaath, who has been imprisoned since last July.

"Prisons are well-known for being the incubator of any disease, and one of the tips that old inmates will give new prisoners is is not sickness," she added.

These new restrictions add to the notorious usual prison conditions, including infested facilities, often without adequate ventilation and lighting.

"The cells are generally crowded with all kinds of insects," says a person close to Ola al-Qaradawi, daughter of the famous scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and her husband Hossam Khalaf, who have been imprisoned since 2017.

Sumaya, whose brother Yahya is still imprisoned in Tora prison, warns, "No one can continue to live in these conditions permanently."

The Ministry of the Interior, which denies neglecting the medical needs of prisoners, said in a statement in early April that facilities in all prisons had been cleared and sterilized as a precaution.

"It can work (Ministry of Interior procedures) if it is certain that the prisoners will be treated humanely ... but it is not," said Sarah Mohamed, a researcher with the Egyptian Committee for Rights and Freedoms.

"For this reason, with the increased risk of tragedy, the voices calling for the release of prisoners have multiplied, and on March 19, the regime appeared to have taken a shy step in this direction by announcing the release of 15 opponents who were in pre-trial detention," the newspaper concluded.

But the regime has so far refused to extend that step to other cases, as the rest of North Africa has announced to varying degrees.