Egypt: Unjustly Jailed Journalist Denied Healthcare

Following his first questioning by the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP) in May 2021, Tawfik Ghanem was transferred to Tora Investigation prison, where he remained until December 2021. According to his relatives, prison authorities there denied him a bed and he was forced to sleep on two blankets on the floor despite his bone disease. His prison conditions deteriorated further when he was transferred to Abou Zaabal prison in December 2021, where he remained detained for two years. For some 12 months following his transfer, authorities banned his access to books and newspapers, and severely restricted family visits. While the situation improved during his second year there, for the duration of his detention at Abu Zaabal, he had no direct access to sunlight and could only exercise in an indoor area. 

Since 1 January 2024, he has been held in Badr 1 prison in a cell with eight other people for 23 hours a day as he is only allowed out of the cell for an hour of exercise daily. The cell does not have a fan, which makes it unbearably hot during the summer months. During public holidays, the cell remains closed 24 hours a day. His family is permitted to visit him once a month. According to his relatives, the prison administration occasionally withholds essential items like books, newspapers, pens and hygiene products from him and other prisoners held for political reasons. Relatives are also not allowed to bring their detained loved ones personal items such as clothing.

Amnesty International learned from human rights organizations and other informed sources that at least dozens of prisoners in Badr 1 prison have been on hunger strike since early June in protest at their cruel and inhuman detention conditions. The hunger strike appears to have been triggered by a sharp rise in temperatures, reaching over 40˚C, amid the prison authorities’ refusal to allow prisoners to have fans and daily power cuts introduced by the government nationwide in response to the energy crisis. Detainees are also protesting the lack of access to adequate healthcare, and what they and Egyptian human rights activists describe as humiliating body searches imposed by prison officials when prisoners leave their cells, including to attend pretrial detention renewal sessions or to go to the prison clinic. Other commonly reported complaints include the ill-treatment of families during prison visits, including forcing them to wait in the sun for hours; the reduction in the time allotted to prisoners for exercising outside the cell; and restrictions on family visits. Some of those on hunger strike are also protesting their lengthy pretrial detention, in some cases exceeding the maximum limit of two years permissible under Egyptian law. According to human rights groups, in response to the hunger strike, Badr 1 prison officials introduced further punitive measures including transferring some 50 prisoners to distant prisons, located in al-Minya governorate (about 280 km south of Cairo) and Al-Wadi Al-Jadid governorate (about 620 km southwest of Cairo) prisons. According to activists, prison authorities imposed punitive measures on the remaining prisoners in Badr 1 prison involved in or supportive of the hunger strike, including deliberately cutting off their access to electricity and water, in violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. Amnesty International understands that Tawfik Ghanem is not on hunger strike due to his diabetes. 

Since 2016, the Egyptian authorities have consolidated their grip on the media landscape and intensified their crackdown on journalists daring to deviate from the official narrative. Since then, the authorities have subjected dozens of journalists and other media workers to arbitrary arrest and detention, prosecutions on trumped-up terrorism-related charges and dismissals simply for expressing critical views. Security forces have raided the few remaining independent online media platforms in Egypt and blocked hundreds of websites. The adoption of draconian media and cyber legislation in 2018 further granted the authorities overly broad powers to regulate media content, restrict journalists’ freedom of expression and impose prison terms for criticism online. At the time of writing, at least 14 journalists remained behind bars after being convicted or pending investigations into charges of “spreading false news”, belonging to a “terrorist” group or “misuse of social media”. Over 600 news, human rights and other websites continued to be blocked. In 2023, the authorities blocked the website of the NGO Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the news sites of Soulta 4 and Masr 360. Staff at Mada Masr, an independent media platform, continue to face politically motivated prosecutions and investigations, including in relation to its publication in October 2023 of an investigative report on the Rafah border crossing. Journalists were among the 820 people added to the government’s “list of terrorists” throughout 2023 without due process, depriving them of civic and political rights.

Throughout his career, Tawfik Ghanem has headed a number of media organizations, including Media International, which ran the Islam Online website for ten years. Most recently, he served as regional director of the Anadolu Agency in Cairo until his retirement in 2015.