“After my arrest, I remained for two weeks in the Cairo police detention center. There were about 50 of us crowded into a tiny cell with no air conditioning, window or ventilation, and only one toilet. At times we were so crammed together that I had to stand on one foot and then the other. We organized rotations to sit, lie down or try to sleep on the floor.
Our families were allowed to visit for five minutes a day to give us water or food. These were the worst prison conditions in all of Egypt.
I was lucky: I was held only two weeks, whereas some languish there for two years, if they don’t die beforehand from the horrific conditions. I escaped torture most likely because I am a doctor and human rights activist working for a humanitarian NGO, and an active member of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate. But so many are beaten, electrocuted, raped, hung up by their hands for days on end by the political security agents…
At Tora, the prison complex where I was transferred, the conditions were somewhat better. But it’s all relative after the horror of the previous detention center! Upon arrival, amidst screams, blows and humiliation, the detainees are shaved to ward off lice, then dressed in a white uniform. For eleven days, I survived in a cell with 30 prisoners. There was only one toilet and a makeshift shower which hardly ever worked. We had one blanket to lie down on the floor with and no access to a courtyard.
We depended on our families for survival; they were allowed to visit only once a week. During that time I suffered from ill-treatment because I criticized the conditions. Later, I was placed in a cell with about 15 others. As a political prisoner, I was not permitted to work.
Only boredom, anxiety and the long wait kept me company. Books are rarely allowed in the prison. My cellmates and I played dominos or chess with items we made ourselves, in secret, from whatever materials we could find.
During those seven months I endured the tyranny of the repressive regime like many Egyptians and could experience first-hand how hard it is for prisoners to gain access to medical treatment. Illnesses result from incarceration and unsanitary conditions. Pneumonia, digestive and dermatological disorders are common; Hepatitis C spreads and deaths from cardiac problems abound. From time to time families can bring medicine to their loved ones, but usually all pathologies, even cancers, are “treated” with acetaminophen!
Access to clean water is a crucial issue in our hot climate. Bottled water sold at the prison commissary is prohibitively expensive for most detainees who have to resort to whatever their families can bring sporadically, or drink the contaminated tap water. This is another cause of chronic illness which can become fatal in these conditions where there is no access to health care.
Most of the detainees are imprisoned without reason, or simply for their activism. Like me, they are opposed to dictatorship and repression. I was not granted a trial nor given a date of release as there were no specific charges against me… Every six weeks or so I was put in front of a judge who sent me back to prison, until, after seven months, I was released without explanation. At that point my attorney informed me that my case had been sent to the national security agency, which was not a good sign. My return to prison seemed unavoidable, so I decided to leave the country – reluctantly.“
— Published on 19 April 2017.¶
