The “Freedom Detainees in Egyptian Prisons” movement said 16,000 Brotherhood prisoners are going on hunger strike in 11 prisons on Wednesday to protest their alleged mistreatment.
The movement said in a statement issued Friday that the aim of the strike is to pressure the regime to stop torturing prisoners and to release the innocent.
The strike will include the prisons of Borg al-Arab, al-Hadra, Damanhur, Abu Zaabal, Wadi al-Natrun, Torah, Gamasa, al-Aqrab, Fayoum, Assiut and the New Valley.
The statement also said that among the prisoners are doctors, engineers, professors, students, women and juveniles. “They have other means as well to pressure the regime to end human rights violations,” said movement spokesperson Haitham Abu Khalil, adding that there are some 30,000 detainees, including children that may not legally be placed in prisons.
He demanded political forces and human rights organizations to move quickly and save them.
Lawyer Ali Kamal said inhumane conditions inside prisons would lead to a revolution that no one can stop. “We will pick up the matter before international courts until the regime stops its repressive practices,” he said.
The Freedom and Justice Party said in a statement on Friday that its detained members are deprived of food, water and medicines, that they are allowed to go to the toilets only once a day for five minutes, and that their relatives are insulted when they visit them.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
