Amnesty decries treatment of injured detainee Esraa al-Taweel

Jailed amateur photographer student Esraa al-Taweel may lose the ability to walk if she doesn’t receive the medical treatment she needs in prison, said an Amnesty International statement issued Friday petitioning for her immediate release.

Taweel, 23, is being held at Qanater Women’s Prison as she awaits trial on charges of belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group and “broadcasting false news.”

She was temporarily confined to a wheelchair last year due to nerve damage sustained when she was shot during the dispersal of a peaceful protest on January 25, 2014. Her family says that though Taweel had been recovering, the prison authorities have denied her requests for physiotherapy treatment, and now she may end up paralyzed.

The Amnesty statement exhorted readers to write letters to the interior minister, prosecutor general and minister of foreign affairs to intervene in the situation and ensure that Taweel is granted all necessary medical attention. Amnesty also demanded that Taweel’s lawyers be allowed access to her case file in order to prepare for trial.

Taweel was arrested with two friends outside a restaurant in southeast Cairo on June 1. The two young men, Sohaib Saad and Omar Mohamed, were referred to a military trial on the same charges late last month, while Taweel’s pre-trial detention has been extended six times since her arrest.

All three have denied charges against them.

The Amnesty statement said Taweel’s case was indicative of endemic abuses in Egypt’s penal system, ranging from the forced disappearances of opposition activists to blindfolding detainees and physical assault. Amnesty also condemned provisions in the new anti-terrorism law that make it easier to refer civilians to military tribunals, and that grant broad powers to security forces when making arrests or dispersing protests.