Egyptian authorities must stop reprisals against prisoners held in 10th of Ramadan Prison for a recently hunger strike to protest against their arbitrary detention, Amnesty International said in a press release on Thursday.
In early January, several detainees at 10th of Ramadan Prison launched a hunger strike to protest against the cruel and inhuman conditions they were held in.
They demanded the release of those held in pretrial detention for over six months, access to outdoor exercise, full visitation rights, and the dismissal of the National Security Agency (NSA) officer in charge, “who they accuse of carrying out a host of abusive acts.
In the aftermath of the strike, authorities transferred at least three detainees from 10th of Ramadan Prison to prisons notorious for harsh detention conditions, after the punitive confiscation of their personal belongings.Â
“Instead of addressing the abysmal detention conditions in the 10th of Ramadan Prison, the authorities are trying to silence prisoners protesting these conditions by punishing them,” said Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt Researcher at Amnesty International.
“Even when prisoners are held in newly built, modern prisons such as 10th of Ramadan, they still suffer abuse at the hands of prison authorities who operate without adequate oversight or accountability.”
Shalaby added that Egypt must improve the condition of detainees and allow international observers to access detention centres.
“The Egyptian authorities must ensure that conditions of detention are humane and in line with international law and standards, including the Nelson Mandela Rules,” he said.
“They must respond to longstanding calls by Amnesty International and Egyptian human rights defenders to allow independent Egyptian and international observers to have unfettered and unannounced access to prisons and to monitor detention conditions in the country.”Â
Two women family members of the transferred detainees told Amnesty International that authorities had moved their relatives to prisons located hundreds of kilometres away from where their families lived.
The transfer to remote prisons, known as “Taghriba“Â (internal exile), is a common punishment used by Egyptian authorities against prisoners and their families.Â
A relative of a detainee at 10th of Ramadan Prison told Amnesty International that he was transferred to another prison instead of receiving necessary medical treatment, apparently as punishment for attempting to send a letter to his political party requesting help for his release.
10th of Ramadan Prison was opened in 2023 amid a propaganda campaign by the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, promoting it as a step toward improving detention conditions.
Ever since Sisi overthrew his democratically elected predecessor, Mohammed Morsi, in a 2013 coup, tens of thousands of Egyptian political opponents and dissidents have been detained on trumped-up charges and held in abusive conditions without charge or trial.
On 12 January, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) published a statement about the deteriorating detention conditions at the facility, after which prosecutors began investigations into the executive director of the EIPR for “spreading false news” and “aiding and funding a terrorist group”, Amnesty reports.
Based on research into 16 prisons across Egypt, Amnesty International previously found that prison officials in Egypt are subjecting prisoners of conscience and others held for political reasons to torture and other  cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, while denying them health care to punish dissent.
