• EGYPT
  • August 23, 2016
  • 4 minutes read

Junta Authorities Continue Intransigence, Brutality Against Political Prisoners

Junta Authorities Continue Intransigence, Brutality Against Political Prisoners

Coup security forces in charge of Natrun Prison administration arrested Mervat Mohamed Salem, 38, during a visit to her detainee husband Saeed Salem, tax department employee, from a village in North Sinai, on Sunday – August 21. Security forces later released Mervat without giving any reasons.



Saeed was arrested since December 12, 2014. He was then moved over to Wadi Natrun Prison, sentenced to 15 years imprisonment later commuted to three years.


Interior Ministry forces also arrested on Sunday Salem, 70, the father of the detainee Saeed, from inside his home. He suffers kidney disease and other chronic health problems. Coup forces also arrested Mohamed Salem, 38, brother of Saeed.


In the majority of times, detainees’ families suffer severe intransigent and arbitrary brutality in the course of official visits, which are only too often banned altogether – without reasons. This is clearly meant to break the will of prisoners and their families, by insulting and humiliating their loved ones – in violation of the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulates in Article (5) that "no-one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", and also Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that "No-one shall be detained or subjected to arbitrary arrest or exile".


Human Rights Monitor (HRM) condemns illegal practices by the prison management authorities that violate the rights of detainees and humiliate inmates’ human dignity in violation of all international conventions and local laws that safeguard detainees’ rights, and agreements that Egypt has signed. HRM holds coup prison authorities responsible for the psychological and physical health of detainees.


HRM affirms that the spread of the phenomenon of impunity among security forces in Egypt in all the crimes committed by State officials and in the deprivation of victims and their families of legal redress has become a consistent approach adopted by the junta regime to encourage its staff and security apparatuses to escalate their repression and atrocities, protected by the prosecution service, the judiciary, the media and human rights organizations – all of which actively appease the junta regime, as they consistently distort the facts and white-wash the regime’s dirty laundry and horrific crimes.


HRM calls on international human rights organizations to send committees for immediate investigations to find out the truth of what goes on behind the walls of the cells of Egyptian prisons. HRM also appeals to the Special Committee of the United Nations’ Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment to find a radical solution to the crisis of Egyptian detainees.