Ahmed Aboul Ela, the lawyer for Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, head of the Strong Egypt Party, revealed that he had submitted a request to the attorney general to enable his client to obtain a coronavirus vaccine.
Aboul Fotouh has been in detention for more than three years. He has complained many times of medical neglect.
Aboul Fotouh’s lawyer demanded that his client be allowed to go to the hospital to receive the vaccine or that authorities authorise the Mabaret Maadi Hospital unit to move to the prison and administer the vaccine there. Abu Aboul Ela said that his application is under examination at the technical office of the attorney general. Also, Aboul Fotouh’s family registered for him to obtain the vaccine through the Egyptian Ministry of Health website.
Aboul Fotouh’s lawyer confirmed that his client suffers from poor health and has many chronic diseases. He added that Aboul Fotouh is being held in a cell inside a ward where no one is present. He is not allowed to exercise, like the rest of the prisoners, or communicate with anyone in violation of prison regulations. Aboul Fotouh has been detained since February 2018 and is still in pretrial detention until now, despite having exceeded the legal period of imprisonment on remand, which is two years.
Mahmoud Jaber, director of the Adalah Organisation for Human Rights, said that obtaining the corona vaccine is a legitimate request. He explained in press statements that Aboul Fotouh is over the age of 65 and suffers from several chronic diseases inside the prison, which means that he is one of the critical and priority cases in obtaining the corona vaccine.
Jaber added that according to the monitoring of many human rights organisations, there are more than 750 cancer patients inside prisons. He stressed that there are many other critically ill people, those with chronic diseases, and the elderly, all of whom do not receive medical care.
Jaber said that no one could deny the spread of coronavirus inside Egyptian prisons. He has documented several cases of infection in different prisons, such as Wadi Al-Natrun, Burj Al-Arab, and Scorpion, and many police stations. He revealed that there are cases of deaths inside these headquarters due to corona, who were not treated.
