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Report team

Data Collection Asmaa Mohammed

Sheima Khaled

Sally Gaber

RESEARCH AND report writing Sheima Khaled

rEVISION Tamer Salah

Design E. Ali

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Methodology ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4

1.Violence against detainees ................................................................................................................................................ 5

2.Detention conditions .........................................................................................................................................................10

3.Medical Negligence ...........................................................................................................................................................15

4.Visits management and allegations of bribery ...........................................................................................................17

Conclusion and recommendations ....................................................................................................................................18

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INTRODUCTION

Wadi Natroun Prison 440, hereinafter referred to as “Prison 440”, is one of three prisons in “Wadi

Natroun Prison Area” near Sadat City, in Behira Governorate. The prison consists of 12 wards, each

consisting of 18 cells. Wards No. 1 to 11 constitute the detention cells, and ward No. 12 has special

purpose cells.

This report is divided into four different parts. First it covers the incidents of violent acts committed

against the political detainees that CFJ was able to document from June 2016 to August 2017.

Secondly, it highlights the detention conditions inside the prison in the normal detention cells and the

special purpose cells in ward No. 12. Thirdly, the report team studies the prison’s capacity to provide

medical care to its detainees. Finally, the report discusses the allegations of bribery and violence

witnessed firsthand by detainees’ families during visits.

Methodology

Information in this report is based on two sources:

1. Direct interviews with 8 families and relatives of political detainees in ‘Prison 440’, as well as

an interview with one former political detainee in ‘Prison 440’. 2. “Three letters” written by the political detainees themselves, which were later leaked to the

press and social media. (Copies of the three letters are attached at the end of the report).

While the interviews for the report were conducted in August and September 2017, this report covers

the period from June 2016 to August 2017 in ‘Prison 440’. The names of some the detainees have not been disclosed due to requests by their families out of

fear of future reprisal against the detainees in prison. Abbreviations are used in some parts of the

report; however, they don’t correspond to real names and have been chosen at random.

While the report focuses on the situation of political detainees, it doesn’t mean that criminal detainees

suffer no abuses or violations; in fact, throughout this report, there are references to violations

committed by the prison against criminal detainees. CFJ also learned from some of the families of the

political detainees, that criminal detainees also suffer from the degrading detention conditions of cells

and repeated and unjustified confiscation of their belongings along with other political detainees. In

this report, CFJ’s research team focused on political detainees, because of the willingness and

availability of their families to document the violations they suffer from.

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1.Violence against detainees

Political detainees in ‘Wadi Al-Natroun Prison 440’ have a long history of resorting to hunger strikes

to demand humane treatment and proper medical care. However, be it the hunger strikes in 2016,

March and April 2017, or July and August 2017, their demands were never met.

Torture allegations, use of force, and hunger strike in July and August 2017:

The current hunger strike was brought on by multiple incidents of violence committed against political

detainees. According to an interview with the family of Omar Mustafa - political detainee in ward

No.2-, three political detainees - who are doctors - had an argument with criminal detainees in Ward

No.2. This led to a fight, and criminal detainees started beating the three doctors. Some of the prison

personnel got involved in the fight and started beating the three doctors along with the criminal

detainees. Later, the criminal detainees - with the help of the prison administration - filed a complaint

to the prison administration stating that the three doctors were the ones who attacked them, as well

as the prison guards who were involved in the fight. As a result, the prison administration punished

the three doctors and other political detainees in ward No. 2 through confiscating their belongings

without conducting any investigation in the matter. According to the family of another political

detainee, the three doctors were then taken away from the ward, beaten, and placed in solitary

confinement for more than 25 days by the prison guards. This incident led to 80 political detainees

beginning a hunger strike on the 5th of July 2017, in support of the three doctors. According to a letter

by an anonymous political detainee that was leaked to social media and news outlets on 12th of July

2017, hereinafter referred to as "Letter No. 1", the three doctors are: Saeed Abdel Halim, Abdel

Rahman Ghareeb, and Hamid Kamal.

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“Letter No. 1” accused the Head of investigation office in Prison 440 “Tamer El Desouky” along with his subordinates and criminal detainees of falsely accusing the political detainees in the ward of

beating him, his subordinates, and the criminal detainees, while Tamer El Desouky was the one who

assaulted and cursed at the detainees in the ward.

Following this, two of the political detainees, Anas Ksab and Mohammed Baseony, were chosen

seemingly at random and placed in solitary confinement. Anas Ksab’s family was not allowed to visit

him for a month.

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Separating political detainees and placing them with criminal detainees is a method used by the prison

administration to punish political detainees. Four of the families CFJ spoke to reported that their

relatives were separated from other political detainees and placed in wards with criminal detainees.

One family said their relative asked them for money to give to the criminal detainees with him in the

ward so that they didn’t harm him. Their relative also informed them that other political detainees have to pay criminal detainees as well so as not to harm them.

According to another letter written anonymously by one of the political detainees, received by CFJ on

the 14th of August 2017, hereinafter referred to as “Letter No. 3”, some of the criminal detainees in

Eunboka cells (discussed in detail below), work as informants who watch every move of the political

detainees and convey it back to the Investigation Office in prison every morning.

Another incident of unjustified, excessive use of force involved Ahmed Mandour, a 23-year-old

college student, and Ahmed Shaban, a 20-year-old student. Ahmed Mandour had his hands tied

behind him to a lamppost in the sun on one early morning till sunset, wearing only a pair of shorts,

according to a relative. This happened repeatedly during the time he spent in Eunboka cells (cells

designated for the detainees when they first arrive or when they return from another prison) which

amounted to 100 days. According to another family, their relative witnessed detainees who were tied

to a lamppost and any guard passing by would beat them. Ahmed Shaban reportedly suffered the

same treatment alongside Ahmed Mandour.

Having the detainees stand in the sun in their underwear seems to be a systematic punishment

method in Prison 440. One of the detainees’ relatives reported to CFJ seeing a young man dressed

only in shorts standing in the sun at 1 p.m. while they were there to visit. The former detainee also

informed CFJ that when he first arrived at Prison 440 in 2016, they were forced to strip down to their

underwear and were left in the sun for a long time.

On 28/7/2017, families of the detainees filed a complaint to Prison Affairs on the violence incidents

committed against the detainees in Prison 440. Some of the families also heard that other families

have filed a collective report to Al Sadat Prosecution office, but CFJ was not able to verify it.

The hunger strike started on the 5th of July, with some political detainees committing to a full hunger

strike while others were on a partial hunger strike (not eating prison food). According to one family,

wards No. 1 and 2 were on full hunger strike while wards No.8 and 9 were on a partial one. On the 5th

of July, the number of political detainees on strike was reportedly 80 and by the 15th of August, that

number rose to a reported 202 political detainees. While the hunger strike started due to use of force

against political detainees, their demands as shown in their leaked letters and what they informed

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their families and relatives are: “to provide treatment for detainees who are sick, provide better

detention conditions for all detainees ‘especially for the old and ill’, and to be treated humanely and

without violence”.

Torture allegations, use of force, hunger strike, and prosecution investigation in March and April

2017:

According to Omar Mustapha’s family, altercations began between the detainees because some of

them, including Omar, were celebrating Mother’s Day with their families on their visit while other

detainees thought they should not celebrate it. This coupled with some of the detainees’ refusal to

have their head shaved led the prison guards to beat the detainees with wooden sticks and

truncheons on their back and all over their body. They were also yelled and cursed at during and after

the beating. Then, they forcefully shaved their head in a demeaning way that made the detainees feel

like cattle, with no regard to hygiene. According to the families of Anas Kasb, Omar Mustapha, and

A.K., they had their personal belonging taken, including their study books, clothes, blankets, and their

tickets (used as money to buy food from the prison’s canteen), along with the other detainees in wards

No.8 and 9.

Following this, Anas Kasb, Omar Mustapha and other detainees were placed in solitary confinement.

According to his family, the prison administration said the Hijama (Dry Cupping) for his back pain found

in Omar’s belongings was the reason for his punishment, as they claimed Omar had smuggled it

(despite the fact that it was approved for entry by the prison). Following their return from solitary

confinement, they were placed in ward No.2 with criminal detainees. According to A.K.’s family, criminal detainees were ordered by the prison guards to harass them.

Due to this incident, ward No. 8 - which hosts about 22 inmates - took part in a full hunger strike for

17 days with other detainees joining in. A.K.’s family, on the other hand, said the hunger strike lasted for 21 days. During the strike, A.K. lost consciousness while in a visit with his family and had to be

rushed to the prison’s hospital. He went several times more to the hospital for intravenous injections

because his blood sugar level kept dropping due to the hunger strike. Omar Mustapha lost

consciousness several times as well due to the hunger strike and had to be sent to the hospital. The

hunger strike was suspended when the Head of the Investigation Office in prison “Tamer El Desouky” promised to listen to the detainees’ demands. On the 26th of March 2017, several families filled a complaint to Al Sadat Prosecution office detailing

the beating, insults, forced shaving, and solitary confinement that the detainees suffered from, under

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compliant number 57/2017. Another complaint was filed later under the same number requesting

the prosecution office to conduct an investigation. A.K.’s family reached out to the prosecution office

to find what actions were taken following the complaint filed by the families. They were informed that

the office had contacted the prison, and that the prison denied any of these allegations taking place.

Omar Mustapha’s family informed CFJ that the detainees said that someone from the prosecution did

come and asked them questions, but nothing happened afterwards.

Torture allegations, use of force, and hunger strike in June, July and August 2016:

Upon their arrival in Prison 440, on the 16th of June 2017, the former detainee (interviewed by CFJ),

along with other detainees were ordered to take off their clothes except for their underwear. They

refused, so they were cursed and yelled at and severely beaten. The prison guards then confiscated

their personal belongings and a some of their clothes and made them stand for a long time in the sun.

The former detainee told CFJ that before being assigned to a ward, “the detainees would be brought

before an Investigation Officer (Tamer El Dasouky or one of his subordinates), where they would insult

and psychologically abuse them to mentally break them down. In there, detainees would be assaulted

if they showed tenacity or strength in the face of abuse, or simply because the officer disliked the way

they looked at him. Some officers would purposely beat criminal detainees, tear their clothes, and

curse at them in front of the political detainees to scare them.”

On the 24th of June 2017, while 8 university students were being brought before an Assistant

Investigation Officer named Ramy before being assigned to a ward, the officer beat some criminal

detainees in front of the students. The students objected, and this led the officer and other prison

guards to force the students to take off their clothes except for their underwear and then beat them

using sticks and bare hands. The beating lasted for 20 minutes before the students ran to ward No.9

which contains political detainees (the former detainee added he remembers seeing the students with

visible injuries in their head, nose and mouth). This incident caused the political detainees in ward No.9

to refuse to go back to their cells and close off the ward preventing anyone from entering, then later

starting a hunger strike. Ramy, Tamer El Desouky, and the Prison Warden then tried to appease the

detainees and even apologized for the incident, but the detainees did not end the hunger strike.

Eventually, Wadi Natroun Area Prisons Inspector “Younes El Masry” went to Prison 440 and spoke

with the detainees. They informed the inspector of their demands which included: a request for an

investigation to be conducted on violent acts committed against detainees, to lessen the number of

detainees in a cell from 29 to 21, to return detainees who were sent to Prison 440 far away from their

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families to prisons in areas close to their family, and to allow families to send the detainees medicine

during visits. The inspector promised to fulfil their demands, and this made the detainees gradually

end the hunger strike, however, later on only the last demand was fulfilled.

In July 2017, a political detainee named Ahmed Atef was supposed to be transported to Tora Prison

Hospital to have an operation. As he was making his way to the deportation car, he reportedly argued

with the Assistant Investigation Officer - Ramy - who ended up severely beating him up and sending

him to solitary confinement. When the political detainees learned of this, they started a hunger strike

demanding him to be released from solitary confinement and sent to Tora Hospital. The detainees

attempted to talk to “Tamer El Desouky” to get him to release him, but he said that Ahmed hit one of

his men and must be punished. Ahmed remained for a week in solitary confinement as the detainees

escalated their strike to include refusal to go to their visits. The detainees were told Ahmed has been

released from solitary confinement and sent to Tora prison, so they ended the strike only to find out

later that he was only released from solitary confinement but wasn’t sent to Tora to be treated, and

instead was imprisoned for around 10 days in ward No.1, hidden from the rest of the detainees. This

caused a huge outrage among the detainees that only subsided when Ahmed was finally sent to Tora

Hospital.

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2.Detention conditions

The detainees in their leaked letters wrote about their grief and indignation with their detention

conditions. In a letter that reached CFJ on the 15th of July 2017 signed A.D, hereinafter referred to as

“Letter No. 2”, a political detainee refers to Wadi Natroun Prison 440 as Hell Valley 440.

Living conditions in cells:

According to three of the families, the cells that political detainees are currently kept in whether in

wards No. 2, 8, or 9 are routinely overcrowded, with each cell holding between 22 to 27 detainees.

Ahmed Atout’s relatives spoke to CFJ about how there is no room in his cell so he has to sleep on his side and can’t move. In letter No. 2, the detainee wrote that each detainee only gets 48 cm for himself

in the cell. For the former detainee interviewed earlier, back in 2016, they would use their hands to

determine individual space in the cell with the standard space allocated to every detainee being a few

inches for each of them to place his blankets and live on.

Four of the families CFJ spoke to complained that the detainees are kept in dirty cells that are filled

with insects and cockroaches. One family attempted to send in cleaning chemicals and insecticides,

but were denied entry by the prison. According to the former detainee: “there were a lot of people

suffering from skin allergy and tuberculosis because the place doesn’t allow for cleanness. To properly

clean a cell, you will have to get all the detainees out of it for a period of time and clean it and that just

wasn’t going to happen.” As for the blankets, they slept on and covered themselves with, “the blankets are rarely if ever aired out in the open. It is only allowed if the Head of Investigation says so,

and he almost never does.”

“Back in 2016, the detainees would spend 23 hours and a half in their cell that has no bathroom and

only allowed out of it for half an hour each day to pee”, as stated by the former detainee. In this half

an hour, they had to finish washing their clothes, and if any of them were late in going back to their

cell, they would be immediately sent to solitary confinement. Currently, they spend 22 hours in their

cell, according to two of the families.

According to all 8 families and the former detainee CFJ spoke to, the detainees sleep on the ground

with no bed or pillow. In winter and throughout the year, they are only allowed one or two thin

blankets to sleep on and cover themselves with. This has led many of the detainees to develop back

problems.

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While one of the families CFJ spoke to said that the cell their relative is in had two fans and an exhaust

fan, two other families complained of the lack of proper ventilation of the cells, especially in the

summer when their suffering is exacerbated by the heat. In Letter No.2, the detainee wrote of the

refusal to ventilate cells for ill and old detainees. As for the former detainee, he told CFJ that the only

source of new air was from the small window opening in the door of the cell that the prison guards

might close at times to punish the detainees in that cell. There were an electric fan and an old exhaust

fan in the cells that did nothing but generate a lot of noise which caused a deterioration of the hearing

of some of the detainees. This led some of the detainees to intentionally wreck the exhaust fan to get

it to stop working as they believed it was useless, and to protect their ears from its loud noises.

Ward No.12:

Ward No. 12 contains 18 cells that are designed for punishing the detainees. It has the solitary

confinement cells, “Eunboka cells”, and “Daweu” cells.

Daweu cells:

Daweu cells, or as called by the detainees “the black cells” are rooms that are painted in black, with

no light coming in. According to the former detainee, they are rooms that terrify all detainees, criminal

or political. According to one family, in the black cells, the detainees are not let out to pee and are

forced to pee on the ground of the cell.

Eunboka Cells:

In Letter No. 3, the detainees wrote:

“Eunboka cells are for detainees who are coming into the prison for the first time, returning from a

different prison where they took their exams or were being treated in a different prison’s hospital. The

cell is 10 by 4 meters and has from 30 to 40 detainees in it daily. Detainees can be imprisoned in it

from 9 to 60 or even 90 days. Sometimes, it could last for a year or even two. The cell has no heater

for food and no bathroom. It only has two buckets, one for peeing and another for washing (which is

filled with water once a day at 7 a.m.). The lighting in the room is from a small yellow bulb in the middle

of the room. Continuing to be subjected to this lighting for more than a week weakens the eyes and

eyesight….”

Ahmed Mandour was detained in Eunboka on the 24th April 2017, following his return from Alabadia

Prison where he was taking his exams, until approximately the 26th of August 2017 when he returned

to his former cell. He had spent in Eunboka around 100 days despite already having a known spot in

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a cell. Beside the beating and insults he suffered from, his eyesight deteriorated in one eye. In the

first week of August while he was in Damnhour Prison briefly to attend his court session, he was

examined by the prison doctor who confirmed that his eyesight is deteriorating and that he required

the use of drops as treatment and for him to start wearing glasses. While he was in Eunboka, he also

asked his family to send him medicine for skin allergy.

The detainee who wrote Letter No.3 continues:

“…Every day at 6 a.m., informants come and knock on the door of Eunboka loudly and order the

detainees in a loud voice to take off their clothes, regardless whether its summer or winter. It is

compulsory for all the detainees to be standing only in their underwear, and they would get beaten as

they were kicked out of the room to an open space with a watercourse. It is compulsory on all to strip

and defecate in front of the informants. Those who refused are hit and insulted and are forced to drink

water containing a cleaning detergent and oil to make them vomit. Security guards claim that you

have swallowed drugs, a phone, or a sharp tool. These are always their excuses in this blatant violation

of humanity”.

“And if someone suffers from shortness of breath or asthma or heart disease, no one asks about him

even if he requests medications while they are in Eunboka. You can only leave after spending a

minimum of 9 days in it. And, of course, many of the 30 to 40 people are smokers, and the cell only

has one weak exhaust fan and one electric fan in the middle of the cell”. “For 9 to 10 days, you are not allowed to change your clothes by law. They claim this is done because

the detainees might be hiding drugs in their clothes. Some criminal detainees ‘government informants’ watch over the detainees and inform the investigation office every morning…”

The families complained to CFJ of equating between criminal detainees who were there on drug

charges and political detainees who might not even smoke, leading them to force all the detainees in

Eunboka regardless of their charges to strip and pee in front of them beside not allowing them to

change their clothes.

“…As for sleeping in this space, the sleep space allocated to every detainee is not more than 32 cm and sometimes 30 cm. so, you are sleeping in a distance of one foot… if you wanted to turn, you have to get up, stand up then turn over. If you stood, your place may be taken, and you will have to stay

awake until the person next to you wakes up. Sometimes, arguments would start because one

detainee wakes up another so that he can sleep and so on.”

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For W.M, a 56-year-old detainee who suffers from severe asthma, the lack of ventilation coupled with

being imprisoned with criminal detainees who would often smoke cigarettes caused his condition to

flare up and worsen.

The former detainee told CFJ that he was imprisoned in a Eunboka cell when he first arrived at prison.

He said, “they are their own form of torture. The cells are without ventilation, without light, with high

temperature, and overcrowded. The cell is meant for no more than 6 people. We were 21.” In addition to the known, normal detention places in the prison whether in wards 1 to 11 or ward 12,

families spoke of an incident in February 2017 where a detainee was detained in a dirty bathroom

stall instead of Eunboka cells when he first arrived at Prison 440. This reportedly happened as a

punishment against the detainee for his conduct in a previous prison. He was also reportedly tortured

during that time.

Food, water and personal belongings:

The detainees in Prison 440 have three sources of food: prison food, buying food from the canteen

and cooking it, or food from their families in visit.

Describing the prison food, Letter No. 3 begins, “There are daily food portions for every detainee

whether from rice, meat, bread, cooked beans, eggs, or canned cheese. There is for instance a day in

the week for each detainee to have a piece of meat…” The letter continues to list the unsanitary

handling of the meat, for instance “The meat is brought in by 4-5 workers whose hands are covered

with oil, grease, chemicals and dirt.” This ends with the meat arriving to the detainees colored black,

with a terrible stench, and with flies and insects hovering over it.

One family told CFJ, that their relative told them he regularly finds weevils in his fava beans, which

according to Letter No. 3 is given to the detainees 4 days a week. The letter adds that the fava beans

are very dark in color and cause digestive problems for many of the detainees.

Letter No. 3 also showcases that the portion of food allocated to each detainee is not enough and

leads at times to fights among the detainees. For instance, “20 people get one canned cheese each day. So, if everyone takes a bite, there still wouldn’t be enough.” As for the detainees in Eunboka,

“their portions always cover around half the number of people in the cell. So, they fight over food

portions and take other people’s portions because of hunger and terrible psychological pressure. For

40 detainees, they would get only 20 loafs of breads.”

As for buying food from the prison’s canteen, All the families CFJ spoke to complained of the prison

refusing to admit in certain types of food during the visits so that the detainees are forced to buy food

from the canteen. The families also told CFJ that the food in the canteen is more expensive than it is

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outside the prison, and its quality is much lower. One family told CFJ that a bag of rice in the canteen

costs 15 Egyptian pounds compared to 8 Egyptian Pounds outside.

According to the former detainee, every cell has a food heater in which detainees can heat and cook

their food in the cell. However, the heater raises the temperature in the cell making it difficult for the

detainees to cook in their cell.

In Letter No. 2, the detainee complains that the prison cuts off water for a long period of time. One

family informed CFJ, that their water supply was cut for 12 hours before. Another family said that the

water is white and has a very distinct taste.

Since the hunger strike in March 2017, the families complained that the prison has been confiscating

the detainees’ personal belongings, including clothes, Canteen tickets - that are used as money -, and

student books. This forces the families to send new clothes, student books, and money each time

they visit. The former detainee spoke of similar treatment in 2016 following the detainees breaking

their hunger strike. He described their cells being searched almost every day and taking away their

personal belongings that have been approved by the prison taken from them as well as their medicine.

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3.Medical Negligence

A better medical care in the prison has always been a staple in the detainees’ demands whenever they were on a hunger strike. All the families CFJ spoke to had their relative affected in one way or another

from the inadequate and neglectful care given to the detainees’ physical and mental health. With regards to Prison 440’s own capability to provide its detainees with proper medical and

emergency care, Letter No. 2 claims that sick detainees aren’t contacted by the prison’s hospital, and that the prison’s hospital itself has no doctors. The former detainee told CFJ that when he was sent

to the prison’s hospital, there was a long line of detainees waiting to be examined. When he finally

saw the doctor, he turned out to be a medical student who was assigned to the prison as part of his

training without a supervising doctor. The medical student didn’t have the expertise or knowledge to

deal with the varying illness and health problems that people suffered from in prison. The only reason

the detainees would even ask to be taken to the hospital, he said, is to get some fresh air, walk and

feel the sun. Other than that, there were no benefits for going to the prison’s hospital. As for the examination provided by the hospital, two families told CFJ that the only thing their relatives

said they do in the hospital is “examine your eye, provide you with painkillers, or extract your tooth.”

When there is a problem with a detainee’s teeth, they either give painkillers or remove it. Omar

Mustapha had to remove 7 teeth while being detained.

Without proper examinations, the families are forced to go to external doctors and explain their

relative’s conditions and to plead with them to prescribe a medicine they can send to prison. This blind

prescription of medicine may worsen the conditions of the detainees. One family said that in Wadi

Natroun Prison 440, the prison takes from the families the materials needed to take a sample from

the detainee which they then hand back to the family. The family would then have it tested at an

external hospital and have an external doctor prescribe medicine.

“The beds in the hospital are for sale” said the former detainee. Some detainees would pay the prison

to be hospitalized so that they can escape the overcrowding of their cells and utilize the better

detention conditions of the hospital, including having a bathroom with cold and hot water. This means

that the beds were always fully booked, and if there was a detainee who was sick and actually needed

to be hospitalized, he would just be returned to his cell.

Medical care is provided by the detainees themselves. According to the former detainee, the detainees

would store medicine in their cells and negotiate with the prison allowing in certain medical equipment

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on the detainees’ expense like syringes and blood pressure meters. For Omar Mustapha, he paid a

doctor detainee to tie his teeth to allow him to eat comfortably without pain.

This mode of self-treatment depends on the families being allowed to send in medicine during visits.

However, all the families CFJ spoke to complained of the seemingly arbitrary way medicine was

allowed in. For instances, some of the families complained that some medications that were

prescribed by the prison’s doctor were not allowed to enter after being previously allowed. When

asked why the medicine is not allowed in, members of the prison’s investigation office (including the

Head of the Investigation Office himself) would say that the medicine is on a list of forbidden drugs,

or they don’t recognize the name of the medicine so it will not be allowed in, or that the signed paper

from the prison’s doctor prescribing the medicine is forged. Currently, the medicine has to be

prescribed by the prison’s doctor to enter despite the fact that the prison’s doctor doesn’t examine the detainee and is not equipped to do so even if he wished to. It is important to note that the

detainees have been able to acquire prescription from the prison’s doctor and the medicine they need have been allowed in many times; though not consistently.

Beside the prison’s hospital, there are also medical convoys that come to prison that have qualified,

specialized doctors, and prescribe - and at times give - medicine to the detainees. Some of the

detainees have been able to benefit from this such as Omar Mustapha who was examined, prescribed

medicine, and recommended to be sent to Tora Hospital due to his back problems in June 2016, but

he was only sent in October 2016 and was returned to Prison 440 without being treated. For others,

like Ahmed Atout, a 60-year-old detainee who suffers from Hepatitis C along with other illness,

wasn’t allowed to meet the medical convoy when it came this year. He and other political detainees

were told to wait outside. They waited for 2 hours before being dismissed because the medical convoy

had left without examining them.

The families and the former detainee complained of the difficulty and the long process required to get

a sick detainee to be examined or treated at an external hospital.

There is also a complete disregard for providing mental health care to the detainees. For Omar

Mustapha, who suffered from bipolar disorder and depression before his arrest, all his prescribed

medicine for his condition is not allowed into prison. There is also no specialized mental health doctors

who come to the prison.

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4.Visits management and allegations of bribery

The families CFJ spoke to reported witnessing the violent handling by the prison personnel of the

detainees. For instance, Ahmed Atout’s family said that after the visit is finished, they would violently

pull him by his shirt. This caused the family great distress to see Ahmed Atout as a 60 years old man

who suffers from many illness, and clearly poses no danger to the prison receive such violent

treatment. This reportedly happens often and during standard, normal visits where there is no

violence or threats of violence or even spoken objections by the detainees to justify such treatment.

Another family, who chose to remain anonymous, informed CFJ that sometime in April 2017, after a

visit was concluded and the families began to leave, they witnessed one woman yelling at an officer

not to pull her husband with such violence. This angered the officer, and he slapped the woman.

Forces were called into the prison after the detainee shoved the officer away and made him fall down.

The forces led all the remining visitors outside, and then a large group of the forces started beating

that detainee.

The families also raised a concern that their visit time which had shrunk to only half an hour is used

as a punishment against the detainees for going on strike. This happened before according to the

former detainee who reported that after their first hunger strike gradually ended, their visiting time

shrunk to 5 minutes from behind a wired window as opposed to before where it took place in an open

space.

Four of the interviewed families complained that they are forced to pay briberies to whoever is

conducting the food and items search in the visit or decides what enters the prison. When they don’t pay, the food search is much more aggressive. In addition, some medicine doesn’t get admitted or if

there are two medicine packs, only one would be admitted. While one family said that they always

pay unprompted, the three other families said that they are asked to pay. According to the families,

the prison guard would say “where is my tea, or where is my coffee?” (a well-known Egyptian

expression to ask for money) to get the families to pay. One family also reported that they are forced

to ride and pay for the optional transportation inside the Wadi Natroun Prison Area when they can

simply walk the distance. These briberies impose an extra financial burden on the families who already

spend considerable amount of money on preparing the food and items for visits as well as the cost of

transportation since many of them, live far away from the prison; requiring a day to travel to the

prison.

18

Conclusion and recommendations

CFJ was recently informed that Tamer El Dousky, the Head of the Investigation Office in Prison 440,

has been relocated to a different prison. While it is unclear whether this was in response to the

complaints raised by the families against him and his subordinates’ violent and humiliating treatment

of the detainees, CFJ welcomes the decision. However, while researching for this report, we came

across an interview dated July 2015 conducted with two former detainees of 440. In it, the former

detainees listed identical violations to the ones presented in this report. There is also a press release

from June 2014 signed by 11 human rights organizations listing similar offences against the detainees

in Prison 440. This is important to note as it is a clear illustration that while the violations of the past

two years can be attributed to Tamer El Dousky and his subordinates, the problems in Prison 440 are

ingrained in the way the prison is run to the point that it is highly unlikely to change under a new Head

of Investigation.

CFJ calls upon the Sadat Prosecution office, Prison Affairs body, and Wadi Natroun Prison Area

Inspector to conduct a proper investigation into the incidents listed in this report and to pursue legal

action against the perpetrators. We also ask that the Prison 440 staff be provided with proper training

for handling detainees, to combat the ingrained problems in their handling of situations arising in

prison. We also implore the current prison administration and the new Head of Investigation in Prison

440 to: preserve the rights of their detainees - that are protected in the Egyptian constitution and

international human rights treaties - by refraining from punishing the detainees in any cruel or

unusual way, to improve the detention conditions in the wards, and to provide the detainees with

proper medical care whenever needed.

19

Letter No. 1

20

Letter No. 2 (1)

21

Letter No. 2 (2)

22

Letter No. 3 1

23

Letter No. 3 2

24

Letter No. 3 3

25