Prisoner in Alexandria: From detention to death

On Monday, 27-year-old Mahmoud Mohamed Saad Eddin died at the university hospital in Alexandria. He was serving a 15-year sentence in the case known as “The Events of Sidi Gaber,” which includes 63 defendants.

The defendants were convicted of throwing four children off a building and violence and rioting related to the events of July 5, 2013, in the neighborhoods of Sidi Bishr, Muharram Bek and Sidi Gaber. 

Medical reports indicated that Saad Eddin's health had deteriorated due to his Hepatitis C infection, leading to his death.

Freedom for the Brave campaign, which works to support detainees and political prisoners, said on Facebook that this is the fifth death in detention in three days.

The day before, three detainees died in detention in police stations in Imbaba, Nasr City and 6 October. Two days before that, another detainee died in custody at Ain Shams police station. 

Reda Marei, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Mada Masr that 84 deaths in detention have been documented since June 30, 2013. He added that in many of the cases, death occurred as a result of deteriorating hygiene and living conditions and the lack of health services, in addition to torture and the use of disproportionate power. 

“The 84 cases are just what was detected and published, but there are definitely other cases that we don't know about,” Marei said.

In a phone interview with Mada Masr, Saad Eddin's mother said that her son didn't suffer any illnesses before his incarceration on July 5, 2013. She said he was athletic and continued to play sport in prison whenever possible. She holds the prison authorities responsible for her son's illness and death due to negligence.

“He underwent medical tests when he was arrested at Alexandria Security Directorate and the report did not mention any illnesses,” she said.

He was moved to the hospital with three other inmates suffering from various ailments, one of whom died from Hepatitis, according to Saad Eddin’s mother.

Last May, two days after Saad Eddin was sentenced, his mother says she noticed his face was pale and he was fatigued and suffered from constant diarrhoea. She found out after a visit that her son and seven other inmates were suffering from food poisoning. Since then, she pushed for him to receive medical treatment.

Saad Eddin was eventually transferred to Borg al-Arab hospital, where his mother says she found him in a liver coma. She put pressure on the prison authority for his deteriorating condition and was encouraged to do so by the head of the hospital, who said her efforts could save other prisoners. He was later transferred to Ras al-Tin general hospital.

The supervising doctor insisted on not holding Saad Eddin in hospital for treatment and repeatedly sent him back to prison, his mother says, which she claims was on the orders of security forces escorting her son. After considerable pressure, the hospital's administration finally admitted him for treatment. 

He was initially admitted to the liver department and later moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after his condition deteriorated dramatically. His mother said the doctor treating him made a mistake and that other doctors insisted he be moved to the ICU.

Saad Eddin slipped in and out of comas until he was later moved to another hospital.

“The day before he died I went to visit him and found him lying in his own urine,” his mother recalls. “I yelled at the nursing staff and told them to change him or allow me to do it.”

His mother said she learned about his death when she was filing a request for his release on health grounds.

“His father called me and told me he had died and that the hospital was almost done with the documents required for his burial,” she said. “I was surprised, because I’d spent the whole night in front of the hospital and nobody told me when he died.”

“The death of prisoners in detention is nothing new,” Marei said. “It will keep happening unless the Interior Ministry is restructured and as long as detention pending investigation is expanded, which has led to the detention of tens of thousands of people with no room to accommodate them.”

“Whether the cause of death is due to the overcrowding of cells or poor ventilation or inmates’ health conditions, the Interior Ministry is still responsible for deaths in detention, because it is ultimately responsible for the lives of inmates,” he said.

Marei cited a prosecutor’s report on the Dar al-Salam Police Station, which mentioned that the eight cells are holding 365 inmates, when they are built to hold only 160.

He referred to an incident in September 2013, when Shaker Mohamed Shaker, who was imprisoned on theft charges, died from a heart attack at Qanater Police Station.

“The prosecution ordered Shaker’s transferral to the hospital before he died, but the officer refused to implement the order until he died in detention,” he said.

“What’s amazing is that when his family protested in front of the Qanater Police Station after his death, the Interior Ministry attacked and arrested some of them, and one of his family members died, along with another who happened to be at the scene,” Marei said.

He added that many of the deaths have been caused by the deteriorating health and living conditions in detention, but said he does not disregard torture as well. He cited two examples, the first of which concerns officers at Darb al-Ahmar Police Station, who were accused of using excessive violence on a defendant leading to his death. The other is a case in which police officers at Al-Marg Police Station were accused of torturing a citizen to death, as per the forensic report.

“Detention pending investigation, which has become in itself punishment without trial, and issuing decisions to move unknown numbers of prisoners from police stations to central prisons, where inmates can be held for months, has prompted us to call for at least a doctor in each detention center, and putting an end to arbitrary detentions altogether,” Marei said.

Marei also called for regular spot checks and inspections on prisons by a neutral and independent body, which he said must be formed for this purpose. He also demanded serious investigations into the deaths of prisoners in detention.

“This means that police officers accused of torture do not stay in their positions without a detention order from the prosecution, or their suspension, until investigations are done, otherwise they have a chance to terrorize the victims’ families and pressure the witnesses and destroy the evidence,” Marei said. “That is, if we’re serious.”