Rights Organization Condemns Interior Ministry Death Threats to Aqrab Prison Detainees

Tuesday, March 1,2016

Source: Ikhwanweb An Egyptian NGO urges judicial authorities to take prompt action to prevent state-sponsored killing of political prisoners threatened by Interior Ministry officials Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedom (ECRF) denounces Interior Ministry policies and Aqrab Prison management, which is deliberately escalating violations against detainees, instead of enforcing the law and implementing the Prisons Act. In its rights campaign entitled #اغلقوا_العقرب (Close Aqrab Prison), ECRF received a number of complaints from the families of Aqrab Prison detainees in which they affirmed that top Interior Ministry officials personally threatened hunger-striking detainees, boasting that there is no limit to the violations they can commit until the strike is called off, adding that the ministry's highest bosses had given them the green light for more atrocities and more brutal repression until the striking detainees end their hunger-strike. The detainees said they have been threatened with transfers to remote prisons with the promise of more brutal violations and abuse, such as Al-Wadi Al-Gadid Prison, and also with harassment of and assault on visiting families, complete bans of visits, and direct death threats. ECRF affirms that all the above only mean that the Interior Ministry is deliberately escalating the crisis, instead of enforcing the law and the Constitution. Now, urgent intervention by judicial authorities is required to save the lives of Aqrab prisoners, and to stop the fierce campaign of repression and violations against them. Prompt and decisive action is urgently required before the Interior Ministry commits new crimes against political prisoners. Egyptian Coordinating Committee of Rights and Freedom (ECRF) #التنسيقية_المصرية_للحقوق_والحريات Cairo: Sunday – February 28, 2016 Link: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32460.