3 activists begin hunger strike to protest remand detention, ‘rotation’

Three prominent activists have been on hunger strike since late last week in protest of their prolonged remand detention at Tora Prison Complex, their lawyers told Mada Masr.

Ahmed “Rigo” Maher, Walid Shawky and Abdel Rahman “Mocha” Tarek have all been ordered released by a court at some point in their detention, but all have been charged in other cases by the prosecution before the release procedures could be completed — a process known as “rotation.”

Rotation is one means by which authorities systematically abuse remand detention to keep countless political opponents in custody indefinitely and without trial, opening new cases with similar charges to “reset” pretrial detention periods before hitting the two-year maximum legal limit. Detainees often get their detention renewed without having a chance to defend themselves or speak to their lawyers. In some cases, the detainees disappear in custody until they are rotated into a new case.

Ahmed Maher informed his mother during her last visit that he began his hunger strike on Thursday to protest his continued detention since May 2020, according to his lawyer Mamdouh Gamal. 

Maher was ordered released in October 2020, but State Security Prosecution ordered his detention once more pending a new case.

Gamal added that Maher’s mother sent official correspondence on Saturday to the Public Prosecutor, Interior Ministry, Prison Authority and the National Council for Human Rights, demanding they follow up on the condition of her son's health and consider releasing him.

Walid Shawky, a former member of the leftist April 6 Youth Movement, similarly informed his family that he began a hunger strike on Friday, his lawyer Nabih al-Genady said. 

Genady added that he made a request to be allowed to visit Shawky to determine whether the prison administration has officially reported his strike and assigned a doctor to monitor his health.

Shawky was arrested in 2018 and has been in remand detention ever since. Though he was ordered released in 2020, he disappeared from his detention for over a month, with his family and lawyers unaware of his whereabouts, only to be rotated into another case.

Abdel Rahman Tarek, whose detention was being considered for renewal on Monday, informed his sister that he began his strike on Friday, his lawyer Mohamed Fathy said. The lawyer told Mada Masr before the renewal session began that he will request information from the court regarding Tarek’s health.

Tarek, an April 6 Youth Movement member, has been detained since September 2019 on charges of “joining a terrorist group.” He was ordered released in March 2020 before also being rotated back into detention pending a new case under similar charges. The cycle was repeated again in September 2020. 

In late 2020, Tarek began a 53-day hunger strike, also in protest of his prolonged detention without trial. He concluded the strike on February 4, 2021 due to his deteriorating health and the pressure exerted by prison authorities, his sister and lawyer told Mada at the time.

Tarek was first arrested in August 2013 during a demonstration against trying civilians in military courts and was handed a three-year prison sentence in 2015, followed by three years of probation.

Hunger strikes are a recurring means of protest undertaken by political detainees in Egypt. In 2014, detainees, among them prominent activists in the 2011 revolution, took part in a wave of hunger strikes to protest their detention and prison conditions and to demand fair trials. Last year, public figures including journalists and rights advocates announced their own symbolic hunger strikes in solidarity with striking detainees. 

Prison authorities often deny the occurrence of hunger strikes at detention facilities, making it difficult to ascertain precise figures and to know whether detainees who undertake these protests receive proper medical attention and care, especially in light of the authorities’ common practice of denying detainees their rights to visitation and correspondence.