The family of political prisoner Abdel Halim Abdel Hayy said Tuesday that his health is deteriorating, after he suffered a diabetes stroke in a police station in Fayoum.
Abdel Hayy was arrested on 29 July in Abshawai district in Fayoum, on charges of burning down the district’s police station in 2013, after the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Western Cairo Military Court. He, as well as another169 defendants, were accused of committing murder, violence, and rioting.
His family requested that he be transported to the Abshawai hospital, but the request was denied by police authorities. They added that lower ranking officers in the police station informed them that Abdel Hayy’s health is in danger.
Abdel Hayy is a farmer with Islamist political affiliations, but his family said he was rarely active in the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Abshawai police station in Fayoum was attacked by angry mobs after the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in, and was reopened a year later.
Fayoum had witnessed deadly violence between civilians and police forces, resulting in deaths on both sides. Similar to other governorates, Fayoum saw deadly violence after the dispersal.
The latest incident was the killing of General Mahmoud Abdel Hamid, head of the Tameyya village’s Investigation Bureau in Fayoum by unknown assailants in July.
The most violent incident, however, was the killing of five members of the Muslim Brotherhood in August 2015 by police forces during a raid.
Medical negligence and the lack of medical care have been claiming the lives of political prisoners, with the Ministry of Interior assuring the adequacy of its penal facilities, including prisons and police stations.
