‘What would you say if you got out?’ Hundreds questioned in prisons as authorities prepare amnesty lists, lawyers say

“What would you say if you attended an event and the president or interior minister asked you about prison conditions?”

“What would you say if you got a presidential pardon and got out of prison?”

The above are just two examples of questions that National Security Agency officers have been described as asking hundreds of people serving sentences in detention facilities at Minya, Wadi al-Natrun and Tora since the beginning of August, three lawyers close to the prisoners’ families told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

Dozens of those prisoners whose answers were deemed “acceptable” were informed by the officers that their names would be added to one of the lists of names to be granted for presidential pardon that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announces annually in October.

One of the lawyers said he learned over the past three weeks from several clients serving sentences in facilities within Tora Prison Complex that Tora’s management are preparing for a major conference, to be attended by both Sisi and Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq. At the event, senior staff from within the NSA are set to choose a number of prisoners who will be questioned — particularly from among people who were sentenced for overtly political reasons, whether due to perceived affiliation with Islamism or other opposition orientations. The prisoners will be expected to give particular answers, and will then be granted presidential pardons.

Similar preparations are ongoing in prisons at Wadi al-Natrun and Minya, according to the two other lawyers.

The lawyers said that NSA officers have held meetings inside the three prisons with hundreds of prisoners over the past weeks, including Islamists who received long sentences in maximum security prisons on charges of protesting and storming police stations, and asked them questions related to their future activities outside prison should they be granted presidential amnesty.

Following the meetings, dozens of prisoners were transferred to Tora from the other two facilities and were told they will soon be pardoned by the president, the lawyers said.

The three lawyers expect the chosen prisoners to be added to the pardon list regularly announced on one of the national holidays in October: either Armed Forces Day, on October 6, or the Prophet Mohamed’s birthday, which falls on October 18 this year.

With a national strategy for human rights newly launched at the beginning of this month, the lawyers expressed optimism about the procedures going on in prisons. “We are always hearing talk of a breakthrough [in the human rights situation] and it never comes. We hope that we have reached it,” one of the lawyers said.

Sisi announced on Wednesday, in comments to state-run television, that he intends “soon” to inaugurate an “American style” prison complex, set to be the “largest prison complex” in Egypt, along with a number of other prisons.

A government source working on the human rights file also told Mada Masr that a number of prisoners convicted in political cases could be pardoned in October, while steps could also be taken to release people held in remand detention, as has happened over the past year.

The source, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, said that the final decision will remain in the hands of the president himself, who receives various proposals and reviews them in light of multiple considerations, including foreign policy.

The US made a $130 million portion, or under 10 percent, of its annual military aid to Egypt conditional on improvements to the human rights situation in the country.