Egypt: Gross negligence and inhumane treatment leads to the death of Essam Ali Atta Shalaby in Tora prison

The mother of the victim, Mrs Inam Ragheb, who was the last to see Issam, during a visit on Monday 25 October, says that during that visit she gave him a SIM card, and once he held it in his hand, the guards arrested him, dragged him to his cell, and violently beat him accusing him of having swallowed drugs. She heard his screams from the cell appealing to her.

The victim's family say that he continued to be subjected to beatings and torture by the Tora prison National Security investigators for two days. He told them in his last telephone call that the investigators inserted a water hose in his mouth and his anus. They forced him to drink water mixed with detergent, and that he was suffering as a result of this from severe stomach pains and bouts of vomiting.

On 27 October, the family of Mr Ata received a telephone call from a co-detainee in prison, telling them that Issam had been transferred to Kasr El Aini hospital after being subjected to continuous torture and harsh treatment by the National Security officers in the Prison, which eventually lead to his death.

The Egyptian Ministry of the Interior, on the other hand, alleged in a statement dated 28 October that "Mr Ata experienced severe vomiting and exhaustion, after which the prison doctor was called, and examined Mr Ata." The statement continues "when his situation did not stabilise, he was transferred to the Clinical Toxicology Centre of the Kasr Al Aini hospital due to ingestion of drugs, according to the allegations of two other prison witnesses."

On 28 October, a forensic committee performed an autopsy, and denied the existence of torture or beating signs on the body of the deceased. Many human rights organisations and eyewitness reports from his co-detainees and his family, however, contradict these findings. This has led the family's lawyer to lodge an appeal against the preliminary report, given the suspicious circumstances of death.

Essam Ali Atta Shalaby

Rashid Mesli, Legal Director of Alkarama in Geneva, said "Our experience of the torture cases in Egypt on which Alkarama worked has taught us that the forensic committees are often biased towards the authorities when producing medical reports on torture cases, where the targets of investigations are the police officers or members of the State Security Forces".

He added that "the Interior Ministry is directly responsible for the killing of Mr Isam Ata, and that the Egyptian prisons lack the minimum standards to protect prisoners, without considering the daily mistreatment that the prisoners suffer in an atmosphere of complete impunity, supported by the Interior Ministry."

Egypt has ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and Inhumane Treatment. Despite this, it has until now refused to allow the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit Egypt or to allow international organisations such as the Red Cross or local organisations access to prisons and detention centres so that they can verify that the treatments are in accordance with the international standards that Egypt ratified.

Alkarama confirms that the violations inside the Tora prison have increased in the past months, according to statements from the prisoners' families. This includes many cases of torture and mistreatment, especially for prisoners in the Istiqbal and Tora prisons.