The Doctors Syndicate released a statement Monday urging President Mohamed Morsy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to exert every effort to secure the release of Egyptian prisoners in Israeli jails, claiming some of them had already been detained for 20 years, while others were being tortured.
The syndicate’s freedom committee drafted a letter demanding that Israel release the Egyptians immediately, and adhere to the international accords on human rights.
Ayman Sharawna, a Palestinian prisoner released in the October 2011 prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, said on Sunday that there are 63 Egyptian prisoners in Israeli jails. He claimed that most of them had served half of their sentences already, and were imprisoned on political, not criminal, charges.
During a news conference at the Doctors Syndicate headquarters on Qasr al-Aini Street in downtown Cairo, Sharawna alleged that the Egyptian prisoners were subject to mental and physical torture.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
