By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) called for an immediate investigation into the excessive use of force against prisoners at Shebin El-Kom Prison in Menufiya, which left dozens dead and hundreds more injured.
“The Prosecutor General must take action now to stop the murder of prisoners and save those injured in Shebin El-Kom Prison,” a researcher with the EIPR, Magda Boutros, said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
The statement confirmed that 17 prisoners were killed in cell block A alone, including Kamal Said Mahmoud, who was killed on Feb. 20.
The statement added that the officers and warden used teargas and live ammunition against the prisoners.
The officers claimed that they attacked the prisoners to prevent them from escaping, but the prisoners denied, saying that they were inside their cells when the shooting took place.
Prisoners inside Al-Qata and Shebine El-Kom prisons told DNE in a telephone interview earlier this week that prisoners were shot at with live ammunition by officers without any justification.
“We’re being treated worse than animals here,” Aly Abdel Ma’boud, a 29-year-old Shebine El-Kom inmate held for drug possession, told DNE.
“Prisoner who are shot dead by the officers are tied by their feet and thrown in the sewers,” Abdel Ma’boud said. “They don’t even give their bodies back to the families.”
Abdel Ma’boud was charged with theft and drug possession in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Driver Mohamed Qutb, 39, who is currently detained in Al-Qata prison for drug possession, told DNE, “any prisoner can be shot dead at any given moment without doing anything wrong.”
“The army is protecting the prison from the outside, but the police officers are the ones torturing us inside the prison,” he added.
EIPR had filed a complaint on behalf of 11 families of inmates to the Prosecutor General on Feb. 9 asking for an immediate investigation into the murders in Al-Qata Prison in a random shooting spree late January.
Testimonies from inside Shebin El-Kom prison indicate that the violence against detainees started on Jan. 25, according to the statement.
Several detainees said that they received medical care days after their injury. They added that they have been denied food, water and electricity for long periods of time since the beginning of the uprising.
EIPR called on prison officials to respect the prisoners’ basic human rights under any circumstances.
“[The Prosecutor General] must put an end to the collective killing of prisoners around the country,” Boutros said. “Especially since every day we discover more victims in more prisons.”
