“Help us”.. A message from inside Egyptian prisons
“Help us”.. A message from inside Egyptian prisons
Under it: Thousands of detainees on remand calling for the application of the law and an end to years of waiting.
“Help us”
To all free people in the world, this is your call.
To those who invoke human rights—every official inside and outside Egypt, and to all the Egyptian people inside and outside the country.
For this is an appeal for rescue from thousands of political detainees in Egyptian prisons: that you hold fast to the detainees’ cause, keep it in the spotlight, and take every measure that would pressure the Egyptian authorities to release the detainees.
We are living a real tragedy in Egyptian prisons—what happens to us and to our families. Here is the account of what we are experiencing:
1. More than 15,000 detainees on remand have been referred to trial, and the length of pretrial detention for most of them has reached 8 years.
2. The cases referred have no incidents, no evidence, and no seized items. They are nothing but a report of investigations only, copied word for word across all cases. The charge is the same in all cases: joining a banned group without any evidence. Sometimes a charge of funding is added as well, also without any evidence other than National Security investigations.
3. The cases were referred to trial more than two years ago. There is one court with two chambers for two specific judges: Judge Mohamed El-Sharbini and the other Judge Gendy. These two judges have had the accused presented to them over 6 years in the chambers for considering pretrial detention. Their stance in these cases is known, and they have previously expressed their views in those cases and their opposition to political detainees—therefore, the rulings are known in advance.
4. The trials are extremely farcical. In each case, you find more than 100 defendants, and sometimes the number reaches 200. Hearings are attended inside sealed glass enclosures in the courtroom; we do not see a judge or a lawyer. The hearing lasts less than an hour, and the defendants do not know what happens inside the courtroom—only that they are brought in and then released.
5. Then come harsh verdicts that have no relation to the charges, as happened in some of the cases that were decided.
6. What is also made clear is that if the trial continues in this manner, it will take 10 years for the two chambers to try more than 15,000 defendants, because cases are adjourned every three or four months—in an absurd scene of trial that we have not seen and that has not occurred in history.
We are still held in pretrial detention for more than 5 years. Many have reached 8 years of pretrial detention on the case, and we do not know how long this situation will continue.
As things stand now, the horizon is closed. There are no judges and no law for the detainees. They are only actors, and their verdicts are known—even if they are delayed.
If there is any hope, it lies in the application of the new Code of Criminal Procedure, which set a maximum limit for pretrial detention of two years. This would mean the release of those whose pretrial detention has exceeded the limit and the end of their trials from outside, so that people and their families can catch their breath. Their release would be mandatory under the force of law.
If the law is not applied, then dealing with the court becomes nonsense and mockery. The correct course would be for all parties—lawyers and defendants alike—to boycott this farcical performance.
If the detainees do not get released in October next, when the law will be applied starting from 1 October, this would mean a slow execution of people. The system would have revealed its intention to kill people while they are in custody. The consequences for the detainees would be very, very bad—something that cannot be regretted afterward.
This is an appeal for rescue from detainees in Egyptian prisons to every person inside and outside Egypt.
Al-Shehab Center for Human Rights
The Center publishes this message as it was received, considering it a testimony and an appeal for rescue issued from inside the prisons. It renews its demand to guarantee the right of detainees to a fair trial, to put an end to prolonged pretrial detention, to respect legal and judicial safeguards, and not to turn pretrial detention into an extended punishment before a final judicial ruling is issued.
This message comes within the Al-Shehab Center’s campaign on pretrial detention, which highlights the conditions of detainees on remand and the impact of the extension of detention periods on detainees and their families.
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