Egyptian human rights organizations have confirmed that the Egyptian authorities have deported dozens of prisoners from Al-Qanater prison for men to other prisons in preparation for its closure, amid a state of anger by their families who were surprised by the decision.
Today, Saturday, the Egyptian Network for Human Rights monitored a state of anger among “hundreds of the families of detainees in Al-Qanater Men’s Prison, after the security authorities transferred dozens of detainees from Al-Qanater Men’s Prison 1 to a number of other prisons without allowing or informing their families to know which prisons they are in.” They were deported to her.
The network commented on the deportation process, “The eviction comes as a preliminary measure to implement the decision taken by the Ministry of Interior to close a number of old Egyptian prisons, including Qanater Prison.”
The network called on the families of prisoners who would like to inquire about the places of deportation of their relatives, to go to the Prison Authority headquarters behind Tora Prison, south of Cairo, as every family of a deported prisoner is entitled to a visit 12 days after his deportation.
Prisoners inside the prison depend on cigarettes to buy their needs and obtain some services, and some of them may pay bribes to informants and ward guards to allow them to bring in larger quantities of cigarettes to sell to the rest of the prisoners, according to the narration of former prisoners. They also confirmed that razors are common in the possession of prisoners, and are commonly used to inflict cuts on the face during brawls.
He also confirmed that, according to the testimonies of former prisoners, repeated assaults took place on prisoners, including beatings, burning the genitals of prisoners using electric shocks, and rape.
As for prisoners on political charges, the Nadeem Center for Combating Violence and Torture previously documented, in 2018, their exposure to other forms of ill-treatment, harassment and collective punishment, most notably detention in solitary cells without bathrooms for long periods. The administration allows those placed in solitary confinement only one bottle of water, a loaf of bread and a small piece of cheese per day.
