July 10, 2019

After visiting her son Ziad al-Alimi, journalist Ikram Yousef confirmed that the former parliamentarian is being kept in poor conditions in the Tora Prison compound.

Al-Alimi is imprisoned with the journalist Hisham Fuad and Hamdeen Sabbahi’s spokesman Hossam Mounas in the “Hope Alliance” case in a narrow, poorly ventilated cell without beds. The detainees have not left their cell for 14 days.

Al-Alimi’s mother expressed her anger at the arbitrary nature of the detention. Security guards refused to give food and duvets to the detainees.

According to Ikram, two days ago her son suffered respiratory distress due to the poor ventilation. The prison doctor visited but said he was unable to help as he was a cardiologist.

The State Security Prosecution renewed al-Alimi, Fuad and Mounas’ detention on Monday for 15 days pending investigation of case 930 of 2019.

On June 25, Egyptian authorities arrested a number of politicians, political parties, activists, journalists and businessmen as part of a campaign to abort what it called “the hope of targeting the state and its institutions.”

It also announced the targeting of 19 economic entities worth EGP 250 million claiming they were “spending [money] on that scheme.”

At the time, several politicians and jurists revealed that the campaign of arrests targeted an electoral political coalition being formed by civil forces under the slogan “The Alliance of Hope.”