It has been reported through local media and social networking sites that an Egyptian businessman died inside one of the National Security Sector’s headquarters in Egypt after enforced disappearance.
Khaled Saad Al-Adawy, an Egyptian businessman of 48 who is the owner and manager of the Pancho Readymade Garments Factory, has reportedly been killed during interrogation at one of the headquarters of the Interior Ministry’s National Security Sector, according to the Jewar Foundation for Rights and Freedoms.
For its part, the Jewar Foundation for Rights and Freedoms holds the Ministry of Interior and the Egyptian Prisons Authority responsible for the lives and safety of detainees in prisons, and demands a comprehensive and immediate pardon for all detainees in order to preserve their lives.
Al-Adawy who resides in the Al-Kom Al-Akhdar area of the Haram neighborhood in Giza, was arrested on 17 July 2021, where he remained under enforced disappearance inside one of the National Security Sector’s headquarters throughout this period, until his family was contacted last Tuesday, 3 August 2021 to receive his body for burial.
For its part, the Jewar Foundation for Rights and Freedoms holds the Ministry of Interior and the Egyptian Prisons Authority responsible for the lives and safety of detainees in prisons, and demands a comprehensive and immediate pardon for all detainees in order to preserve their lives.
In Egypt everyone taken into detention is at risk of torture. Political detainees face a heightened risk. Those most at risk are alleged members of Islamist organizations, particularly during the initial period of incommunicado detention, cut off from the outside world, at premises of the State Security Intelligence (SSI). However, victims of torture in Egypt come from all walks of life.
Amnesty International says it has received well-documented cases of torture and ill-treatment from vulnerable people: from women and young people; from poor people; and from those detained for their sexual orientation. Some are taken to police stations in connection with minor offences and subjected to torture or ill-treatment in order to force them to confess; others are detained without being accused of any crime or offence.
Torture is a long-standing concern in Egypt, documented by Amnesty International for more than two decades. Reports by Egyptian and international human rights organizations based on interviews with victims and witnesses, medical examinations and judgments by Egyptian courts clearly demonstrate the systematic practice of torture.
Working for the abolition of torture has become a priority for several Egyptian human rights organizations who monitor and document incidents of torture, and provide legal and medical assistance for victims and their relatives as well as conducting public awareness campaigns.
That torture is widespread and systematic in Egypt has long been testified by specialized UN bodies, although domestic and international law forbid the torture of detainees.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that torture is widespread and practiced systematically, the Egyptian authorities admit only to the “occasional cases of human rights abuses. Torture occurs mainly during the first days of incommunicado detention. It would be a major step forward in combating torture and ill-treatment in Egypt if immediate access to detainees by lawyers, relatives and doctors could be ensured in all places of detention throughout the country.
