Saturday, September 28, 2013

Egypt Judges: Prosecutor Responsible for Deaths of Muslim Brotherhood Leaders in Detention

 September 27,2013

 Egypt Judges: Prosecutor Responsible for Deaths of Muslim Brotherhood Leaders in Detention

The 'Independence of the judiciary Against the coup' Front expressed deep concern on the conditions suffered by anti-coup political prisoners, after the death of Dr Safwat Khalil (59), who is one of the detainees held in Mansoura Public Prison, and the transfer of two other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Anti-Coup National Alliance to hospital as their health condition deteriorated in jail. The two other leaders are: Mahdi Akef, former Brotherhood leader (86); and MP Yousry Toayleb, member of the Shura Council (Upper House) for Menoufia.


In a statement issued Friday, the Front said: "Although the three cases are from three different prisons (Tora, Menoufia and Mansoura), the complaint is the same. That is: ill-treatment of detainees, holding them in illegal places and conditions, depriving them of their rights, and failing to provide any necessary health care, contempt and humiliation, and restrictions on visits".


The statement further pointed to the failure of the public prosecution service to do its role in the inspection of prisons and places of detention, after members accepted the idea of visiting detention centers personally to investigate.


The statement also criticized the practice of blindfolding members of the judiciary before sending them to question the abducted President Mohamed Morsi at an unknown location. It further criticized the failure of the prosecution to take into account the detainees’ health conditions.


Earlier, on Thursday evening, Dr Safwat Khalil, Muslim Brotherhood leader and former member of the group’s administrative office, who is 59 years old, died in Mansoura Public Prison.


The Criminal Court of Mansoura had issued a decision to release him, but the prosecutor refused to implement that, causing Dr Khalil to suffer an increased severity of the disease as well as instability of health, as he felt the weight of repression and injustice, as described by a member of the deceased’s defense committee.


Meanwhile, medical sources inside Mansoura Public Prison stressed that there is no suspicion of criminal death in the case of Dr Khalil, and that he died of natural causes, as his disease (cancer) reached advanced stages.

Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=31335

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