(ANHRI/IFEX) – The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed deep concern for the life of blogger Mohammed Adel, who is in the Tora Farm Prison. Adel went on a hunger strike to protest against being placed in solitary confinement and his mistreatment by prison authorities, who have not been allowing him to leave […]
(ANHRI/IFEX) – The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed deep concern for the life of blogger Mohammed Adel, who is in the Tora Farm Prison. Adel went on a hunger strike to protest against being placed in solitary confinement and his mistreatment by prison authorities, who have not been allowing him to leave his cell.
On 25 February 2009, ANHRI lawyers submitted a report to the attorney general demanding an immediate investigation into any mistreatment of the blogger by the prison’s administrators. They also called for measures to be implemented to protect Adel’s life from any danger posed by the hunger strike.
While ANHRI condemns the prison administration’s behaviour toward the blogger, it also holds the minister of the interior, the head of the prisons department and the Tora Farm Prison officials responsible for any physical or emotional injury which might befall Adel. ANHRI also stresses that the positions held by the prison officials do not give them the right to mistreat any prisoner and that the constitution states that the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the care of all prisoners and should not discriminate against them for any reason.
ANHRI states that the actions of the ministry and the prisons department go against all the rules governing prisons and violate the most basic human rights guaranteed by international covenants to which Egypt is a signatory. Preventing Adel from leaving his cell is only one of a whole list of mistreatments committed against him by the prison administration since his detention.
It should also be mentioned that lawyers only discovered that Adel had gone on a hunger strike by chance when reviewing an order to renew his imprisonment.
Updates the Adel case: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99488
