The family of detained journalist Mahmoud Al-Saqa has filed a complaint to the Doctors Syndicate over the detainee’s deteriorating health condition.
The syndicate referred the complaint to each of the following: Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, the National Human Rights Council (NHRC), General Prosecutor Nabil Sadek, and the head of Egypt’s prison authority.
The statement read that the detainee has been vomiting blood (hematemesis) for at least 25 days, and has been held in a solitary cell for more than 85 days. The cell had no proper ventilation and lacked basic essentials for living, the syndicate clarified. Further, the journalist was not given the rights stated in the prison regulations.
The Doctors Syndicate asked concerned parties to take all necessary measures to ensure that Al-Saqa received proper health care, to guarantee his safety and well-being and to preserve his legal constitutional right to proper treatment.
Earlier this month, the journalist had suffered from low blood pressure, since no sun reaches his cell. Although the prison doctor demanded immediate inclusive medical tests and examinations, the prison administration was slow to implement the required procedures.
Al-Saqa was arrested along with Yanair Gate’s editor-in-chief, Amr Badr, in May, for charges of inciting protests and attempting to topple the regime after they initiated a sit-in in front of the Press Syndicate late April, protesting two security raids that were conducted at dawn at their private residences.
