What does the Egyptian regime benefit from imprisoning a woman over 60 years of age for political rivalry with her or with a member of her family?

What is the danger of a Sheikh over the age of 70 or 80?

Questions raised by the "void" campaign in its campaign, which it launched two days ago, to release the elderly and sick detainees in Egyptian prisons, whose number is estimated at about 6 thousand.

The campaign said in a statement posted on its Facebook page, "For 7 years there have been thousands of forgotten people that no one talks about in Sisi's prisons, as if it has become normal for them to remain in prisons until death. Indeed, many died in prison due to the absence of health care and inhumane conditions of imprisonment." ".

Human rights organizations said that the 74-year-old citizen, Mohamed Sobhi, died yesterday, Wednesday, in the first district of Zagazig in the Sharkia governorate, due to deliberate medical negligence against him, after being deprived of medication despite his old age and suffering from water on the lung.

The elderly .. numbers and celebrities

For his part, spokesman for the "void" campaign, Ahmed Nagy, told Al-Jazeera Net that the percentage of elderly and sick people in Egyptian prisons ranges - according to a rough estimate - between 7 and 9% of the total number of detainees in Egyptian prisons, whose number is more than 60,000 prisoners, remand and disappeared persons. Forcibly.

He pointed out that, based on the survey carried out by the campaign, 90% of the elderly and sick in Egyptian prisons are men.

The director of the Shehab Center for Human Rights, Khalaf Bayoumi, said in statements to Al-Jazeera Net that the numbers of violations against prisoners "exceeded what is reasonable."

Bayoumi explained that the percentage of patients and cases of elderly people inside the Egyptian detention facilities may exceed 10% of the approximate number of detainees.

Among the most prominent cases of elderly people in Egyptian prisons are the Brotherhood’s general guide Mohamed Badie, University Professor Rashad Bayoumi, Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, the former presidential candidate and head of the Strong Egypt Party, Chancellor Hisham Geneina, Eng. Khairat Al-Shater, Dr. Hazem Hosni, and Mrs. Ola Youssef Al-Qaradawi, 55 Hoda Abdel Moneim, 61, a former member of the National Council for Human Rights.

The condition of journalist colleague Mahmoud Hussein in Al-Jazeera channel is one of the most prominent cases in Egyptian prisons, who suffers from a deterioration in his health, as well as former parliamentarian Ziad Al-Alimi, and Aisha Al-Shater, who is detained in solitary confinement and suffers from frequent coma, as is the journalist Alia Awad, 31 A year-old woman who had a fibroid as a result of a tumor in the womb, and she lost more than half her weight.

In addition to these, a professor at Misr University for Science and Technology, Ahmed Ismail Thabet, who is sentenced to death in the case known in the media as "Communication with Qatar", suffers from severe enlargement of the heart muscle, and former parliamentarian Eid Dahroug who is pursuing a new case after obtaining the acquittal in the well-known case In the media, with "communicating with Hamas," despite the age of 71.

Absent humanity

And Egyptian human rights and civil organizations issued a human rights report last April under the title "Absent Humanity", which dealt with the situation of the most vulnerable groups inside Egyptian prisons and detention centers, and the most vulnerable to infection with the new Corona virus, and what the spread of the virus may cause of multiple violations of their right.

The human rights organizations indicated in their report - from a humanitarian standpoint - to a group of groups inside prisons and detention centers, namely women, children, the elderly, and people with chronic or dangerous diseases, and they constitute the most vulnerable groups because they are more in need of special treatment, in light of the continuation of this epidemic, its spread and the loss of lives without the presence A therapeutic medical mechanism that can stop it, along with poor medical care and health services inside prisons.

A rescue plan

Regarding the reasons for launching the current campaign and its future, Ahmed Nagy said, "We decided in the campaign to be the starting point, and we are working to awaken the conscience of Egyptians and all free people in the world to demand an end to the slow killing operations in Egypt's prisons, even for the elderly and the sick."

Nagy added in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that "one of the reasons that prompted us to launch a release campaign was the deterioration of health conditions in Egypt in general as a result of the government's failure and its indifference to the health of citizens, in addition to the deliberate medical negligence of the detained opponents in prisons, and the group most affected and at risk of death was a group." The elderly and people with diseases that need special medical care, which is impossible to find in Egyptian prisons. "

He explained that the elderly and sick prisoners suffer from some diseases such as cancer, kidney failure and chronic liver disease, and some suffer from neuritis, as well as the suffering of many diseases of aging, and the inability to move with high blood pressure and diabetes.

Regarding the future of the current campaign, the spokesman emphasized the existence of a plan to communicate with organizations working in the field of human rights, the United Nations and other international governmental and non-governmental institutions, to participate in pressuring the Egyptian regime to release elderly and sick prisoners as soon as possible and not to be "a partnership with This criminal dictatorial regime is suppressing the Egyptian people, "he said.

#Egypt .. #Void launches a # release campaign to demand the release of elderly and sick detainees, coinciding with the increase in the number of infections with # Corona virus pic.twitter.com/fVEtLdCDoY

- Al Jazeera Mubasher (@ajmubasher) December 29, 2020

Addressing the world is a priority

For his part, Director of the Shehab Center for Human Rights, Khalaf Bayoumi, said that the periodic reports that monitor and document the crimes of the Egyptian regime and the campaigns launched by institutions - whether human rights or media, and the repeated demands for the release of prisoners - will remain one of the most important means of pressure on the regime and exposing it to its supporters and supporters to reveal the true face. for him.

Bayoumi urged all human rights and media organizations to cooperate with campaigns calling for the release or relief of prisoners.

He added that the "Save Them" campaign - launched by several human rights organizations, including the Shehab Center, Adalah and the Peace Foundation - called for the immediate release of the elderly and the sick with all the guarantees set by the law, as well as issuing reports on vulnerable cases inside prisons.

On the Egyptian regime's response to those campaigns and the extent of their impact, Bayoumi said, "The Egyptian regime depends on its regional and international supporters to continue to exist, so we always go to them with all the reports we issue that make clear that the support money provided to the regime is spent in suppressing the Egyptian people."

At the end of his speech, he stressed that international human rights institutions address governments, regimes and free peoples to explain the danger of their continuing support for the Egyptian regime.

He cited what happened in the European Parliament session on December 16, which denounced the violations committed by the Egyptian regime, stressing that international pressure may result in or lead to a response by the Egyptian regime, even if it is few.