- EGYPT
- September 23, 2014
- 3 minutes read
Rights Organization Slams Interior Ministry Cover Up of Detainee Deaths in Egypt Prisons, Police Stations
Ahmed Mefreh, rights researcher at Geneva-based Alkarama for Human Rights organization, revealed a cover-up by the Interior Ministry in Egypt concerning the killing of two Egyptians inside places of detention in less than a week, due to torture and medical neglect.
Mefreh said that the Interior Ministry cover up is hiding facts about the extrajudicial killing of one detainee inside Ramlah Police Station (Alexandria) since September 17. Until now, authorities have refused to give out any details about this death in custody.
The Interior Ministry deliberately moved all detainees from the police station in question, as part of its cover up of the matter.
Furthermore, Ahmed Syed Salim, 49, died at dawn on Monday in Arish Central Prison after the administration relentlessly refused to let him be taken to hospital for treatment after suffering a severe heart attack.
Families and relatives of detainees inside Arish Central Prison said the administration used special forces to terrorize detainees after a state of anger swept through the prison upon the death of their fellow detainee. The prison administration deliberately prevented Salim’s move to the hospital, and refused to let a doctor check his condition, which caused his death, despite a lot of pleading by detainees asking for an ambulance to try to save him. Salim died due to medical neglect and intransigence.
These murder cases come amid complete official secrecy regarding the situation of detainees in prisons and police stations of Arish, especially Arish Central Prison, in addition to unofficial places of detention, such as those in Arish Police Station 2 and State Security Apparatus headquarters in Sheikh Zuid.
Detainees from the Sinai peninsula, arrested in the so-called war on terror, remain totally incommunicado inside the notorious Azuli Prison and Agroud Prison.
