Joint Statement – Save them, Save the Country – 2



Although the risk of the spread of Coronavirus continues to pose a direct threat to Egyptian prisons, the Egyptian government has taken no action other than to ban visits to all Egyptian prisons. Moreover, the demands and human rights initiatives calling for the release of the sick prisoners, the elderly, women or children with critical conditions have not been responded to, so far.

In contrary to the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for these legitimate claims, in order to protect prisoners from infection with the Coronavirus, especially in light of the huge number of detainees inside the Egyptian prisons.

Although at the same time, many countries have taken immediate steps to face the Coronavirus pandemic, and began releasing a number of prisoners, namely:

“Iran which released 85,000 prisoners, Jordan that released 3080 prisoners, Algeria that released 5037 prisoners, Bahrain that released 901 prisoners, Sudan that released 4217 prisoners, Saudi Arabia that released 250 prisoners, and Turkey that issued a law regulating the release of a number of those who spent half the period, including nearly 100,000 released prisoners”.

The organizations signing this statement call on the Egyptian government to activate the legal texts regarding the release of prisoners, in light of the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, especially the health release, and the release of the detainees held waiting investigation with applying the precautionary measures.

The organizations also call on the Presidency of the Republic, to use its legal powers, to issue a comprehensive amnesty for prisoners who have spent half or three quarters of their sentence period, as if this pandemic, spread all over the country, many lives will be wasted.

Therefore, we call for supporting the public interest and humanity, putting political differences aside, and launching special procedures on health conditions towards all prisoners in the Egyptian prisons and places of detention.

We also call on the Ministry of Interior to allow prisoners to communicate with their families and relatives, through (telephone contact), in light of the continued ban on visiting, as this is one of their rights, and they should not be deprived of communication or contact with their families permanently in any way.

  • El-Shehab Center for Human Rights (SHR), London.
  • Justice for Human Rights (JHR), Istanbul.
  • Salam International Organization for the Protection of Human Rights (SPH), London.
  • Human Rights Monitor (HRM), London.