Cairo, April 9, 2020 – An Egyptian rights group said Thursday it had filed a lawsuit against authorities demanding that relatives of a jailed journalist be allowed to provide him with medical supplies to protect against coronavirus. The Cairo-based Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said in a statement it had filed the lawsuit against Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, the interior minister and prison authorities at an administrative court on Wednesday, on behalf of detained journalist Hassan Al-Bana’s family. The group demanded Bana’s family be allowed “to provide him with health supplies and hygiene tools such as alcohol disinfectants, masks and gloves that help prevent” against infection with coronavirus.
Egypt halted family visits to inmates last month citing the “public health and safety of inmates”. This has meant relatives cannot bring medicine, clean clothes and fresh food directly to those incarcerated. Egypt has confirmed 1,560 coronavirus cases on its territory, along with 103 deaths.
Bana has been held in Cairo’s Tora prison on charges of “joining a terror group” for over two years, according to AFTE. He was producing a documentary at the time of his arrest, according to Amnesty International. AFP contacted the interior ministry for comment on the lawsuit, but did not receive a response.
AFTE said its lawsuit also demanded that the family be kept “informed of all… preventive measures that the Prison Authority and the Ministry of Interior are taking to prevent the spread” of coronavirus within prisons. It comes amid a sustained activist campaign to free prisoners from jails that rights groups describe as overcrowded, unsanitary and potential hotbeds of coronavirus contagion.
Last week, the United Nations urged the Egyptian government to “follow the lead of other states around the world and release those convicted of non-violent offences and those who are in pre-trial detention”.
