Political prisoner in Egypt attempts suicide over 'prolonged detention without fair trial'

An Egyptian political prisoner attempted suicide over the weekend by jumping off the eighth floor in northern Sharqiya province to protest against his "prolonged detention without standing a fair trial," sparking concerns over inhumane conditions at Egypt's detention centres.

Ahmed Mohamed Ibrahim Abdel-Aziz, 29, has been detained for nearly seven years without trial, though pre-trial detention cannot legally exceed a maximum of 24 months, the Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) said in a statement on Monday.

Abbdel-Aziz's detention was, nevertheless, renewed for 15 days, on Sunday, prompting him to attempt to jump off the eighth floor of the local prosecution office building, but security personnel inside the room managed to stop him just on time.

According to the rights group, the detainee reportedly attempted to kill himself twice before as a result of the abuse and emotional distress he had been facing in detention, as no medical or psychiatric assessment has been provided to assess his mental state.

Abdel-Aziz, who holds a university degree in Islamic studies from Al-Azhar University, has first been detained almost seven years ago and has never stood trial since, the group said.

"In June this year, a court ordered his release with security precautionary measures. But the order has never been put into force. Instead, he was [reportedly] subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the state security agency and faced with new charges two months later," ENHR claimed.

No details about the legal charges against him were immediately available at the time of publication.

Local and international rights groups have repeatedly accused the Egyptian authorities of "recycling" dissidents and political activists into new cases before the maximum duration of pre-trial detention ends.

By doing so, detainees remain incarcerated for years without a fair trial, mostly charged with terrorism-related accusations, reportedly, without concrete evidence or solid police investigations for their lawyers to argue. 

ENHR, meanwhile, held both the interior minister and the prosecutor-general accountable for the alleged inhumane conditions at detention centres.

Over the past decade marking the regime of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, local and international human rights organisations have documented cases when authorities used pre-trial detention as an oppressive tool against regime critics, activists and journalists.

Most recently, the Egyptian prosecutor-general rejected the petition of high-profile British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah to count the two years he had spent in pre-trial detention as part of his five-year sentence that, which technically, ended on 29 September, sparking a local and international outcry.