July 17, 2019
The Egyptian Front for Human Rights, an Egyptian human rights organisation, has condemned the conditions detainees are kept in whilst in pre-trial detention in Egypt.
In a statement published on Monday Egyptian authorities were deeply scornful of defendants’ rights, however these detainees are political prisoners, being detained under “exceptional circumstances.” Their detention is constantly renewed and they are being denied basic rights, such as meetings with their lawyers.
The organisation noted that “the courts postpone the trial of detainees in custody or renew detention under the pretext of security conditions, as well as stopping them from appealing their imprisonment for more than half a year.”
The Egyptian Front considered the detainees to be subject to arbitrary deprivation of their rights in clear violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence, a reflection of the current judicial authority.
The organisation confirmed that “during the past few weeks, and because of the African Cup of Nations in Egypt, the Supreme State Security Prosecution suspended hearings to renew the detention of defendants for nearly a month under the pretext of a lack of security.”
The organisation noted that this is not the first of its kind – the state security prosecution used to postpone defendants’ hearings on the pretext of security restrictions during the commemoration of certain events.
