Egypt, prisoners increasingly isolated, the difficulties increase in reporting abuses in prisons

ROME – Egypt has started holding pre-trial detention renewal sessions for detainees remotely, via videoconference. In this way, prisoners participate in hearings from prisons under the direct control of the police. This type of behavior further increases the isolation of Egyptian political prisoners – complaint Human Rights Watch – making it less likely that abuses committed in prisons will come to light.

Due process violations. The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office for State Security is emulating the behavior of the courts which since 2022 have largely conducted hearings to extend detention by videoconference, in many cases avoiding taking detainees to court. Prosecutors in Egypt can unilaterally order the custody of people suspected of committing a crime for 150 days before there is effective judicial review. Human Rights Watch he denounces that this system exacerbates long-standing abusive pre-trial detention practices and violates due process rules. Under this system, judges often do not allow inmates or lawyers sufficient time to speak or describe prison conditions. And, among other things, inmates are less likely to speak freely about the abuses suffered in prison in the presence of prison officials who then have control over their daily lives.

Political prisoners. Egypt holds tens of thousands of people who have been arrested solely for peaceful speech or criticism of the government or because of political affiliation. Many are arbitrarily denied visits or correspondence with family and even lawyers. They could now be locked up for up to two years, the maximum pre-trial detention period allowed under Egyptian law, with little or no access to adequate legal aid and equally little opportunity to report abuses of detention in a court hearing. The two-year limit, by the way, is not a form of guarantee, as the authorities have often held detainees beyond the legal time, using pre-trial detention as an actual form of punishment against critics.

The isolation. Statements by detainees to prosecutors and the courts have been an invaluable source for documenting the grave human rights violations perpetrated by the Egyptian authorities in prisons. By further cutting off the detainees’ ability to speak, authorities are trying to crack down on any remaining criticism of the abuses. It is as if prisoners were muzzled and the cell key thrown away.