Abuse, neglect killed more than 100 detainees in 2014: Al-Nadeem

More than 100 people died while detained in Egyptian prisons in 2014, according to a year-end report produced by Al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.

The report included a timeline of documented cases of torture in prisons, which showed that torture occurred almost daily in the past year. The timeline was accompanied by prisoners’ testimonials, which revealed the inhumane conditions for detainees.

In the report’s introduction, Al-Nadeem claimed that the cases detailed therein represented only a fraction of the violations committed against many more unknown detainees. Torture is a crime, the center declared, whether it’s practiced against a political detainee, a murderer or a terrorist. 

Most deaths that occurred in police stations or prisons were caused by torture, untreated health conditions or the brutal conditions in which the detainees were held, according to the report.

Al-Nadeem lambasted the government for shirking its legal responsibility to safeguard the health and lives of anyone detained in Egyptian facilities.

“You are responsible for all of them — whether they died from electric shocks or brutal beatings; or died from hunger as a result of a hunger strike that you ignored; or died of suffocation because of overcrowding; or of diseases that you delayed treatment for, or because you refused to transfer them to hospitals,” the report said.

“In all cases, their deaths are premeditated murder in your prisons," the center concluded, "and you will be held accountable for it sooner or later."