(Photo courtesy of Maheinour El Masry Facebook Page)
A message from Mahienour El-Massry, written on 22 May 2014 from her detention cell in Damanhour Prison, started to circulate on social media on Friday. The letter was originally posted by one of her lawyers.
In her message, El-Massry described the atmosphere in prison as a “miniature society”. She expressed the relationship between the rich and poor inmates and stressed on the importance of finding solutions for the problems of the poor and providing alternatives for them.
The Alexandrian activist said that in her ward, the rich have facilities unlike the poor. She described the political discussions between the inmates and mentioned some of the opinions regarding the presidential elections, which varied from support of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Hamdeen Sabahy and boycotting.
“We need to focus on the oppressed, as we are focusing on fighting the Protest Law. We should not turn into a group calling for the freedom for a certain person, we need to [being about the] downfall the classist system, call for the rights of the poor and provide alternatives for them,” read El-Massry’s letter.
El-Massry, a labor activist and lawyer, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined EGP 50,000, along with seven other activists last month for violating the Protest Law. They were arrested while organising a protest during the trial of the policemen charged with the murder of Khaled Said.
