ISTANBUL — Egyptian authorities have blood on their hands, Human Rights Watch said in a damning report published Wednesday that detailed scores of detainees dying and wasting away while in government custody.
Most of those imprisoned are members and supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, an estimated tens of thousands of whom have been jailed since Egypt’s military ousted controversial President Mohammed Morsi and took control of the government in July 2013. Academics, liberal and secular activists, Egyptian and foreign journalists and members of rights groups have also been targeted and jailed.
“The Egyptian authorities have appeared shockingly complacent in the face of so many detainee deaths,” Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in the report. “They need to ensure that all such deaths, as well as abuse allegations, are independently investigated, and rapidly put in place and enforce effective safeguards to protect everyone in state custody.”
Despite Egypt’s constitution banning torture and abuse of detainees, the practice is widespread. Last year, a guard at one Egyptian police station in Alexandria proudly showed this reporter bloody handprints on the wall and a belt used to whip detainees.
–
— #FreeSoltan (@Free_Soltan) January 21, 2015
Another high-profile detainee, Alaa Abdel Fattah, is also on hunger strike. The secular activist, jailed on charges including breaking the harshly enforced protest law, is famous for his involvement in the 2011 revolution.
Abdel Fattah has been targeted or jailed by every regime since President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in 2011.
