Credit: www.britannica.com/   Mohamed Morsi,  former President of Egypt,

By Gary Raynaldo     /   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –   NEW  YORK –  A group of independent UN human rights experts declared that there was “credible evidence” that inadequate prison conditions in which former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was held may have led “directly” to his death in June, and thousands of other detainees may be at “severe risk”.  The late Egyptian leader was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours of each day, the experts explained. While serving six years of jail time on charges of alleged terrorism, spying and escape from prison, “he was not allowed to see other prisoners, even during the one hour a day he was permitted to exercise.”

 “Dr. Morsi was held in conditions that can only be described as brutal, particularly during his five-year detentions in the Tora prison complex”,

said Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, together with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

“Dr. Morsi’s death after enduring those conditions could amount to a State-sanctioned arbitrary killing”, they added in a press release. 

#Egypt: UN independent experts denounce #Morsi brutal prison conditions, warn thousands of other inmates at severe risk. “Dr. Morsi was held in conditions that can only be described as brutal, particularly during his 5-year detention in the Tora prison," says @AgnesCallamard pic.twitter.com/t6vgTxuBZR

— UN Geneva (@UNGeneva) November 8, 2019

Morsi, who took office as the first democratically-elected head of State in modern Egyptian history from 2012 to 2013 – before a military takeover – also “was denied life-saving and ongoing care for his diabetes and high blood pressure” while incarcerated, the group went on, and consequently, “he progressively lost the vision in his left eye, had recurrent diabetic comas and fainted repeatedly. From this, he suffered significant tooth decay and gum infections.”    Despite repeated warnings to authorities that such conditions would gradually undermine  Morsi’s health, to the point of killing him, “there is no evidence they acted to address these concerns, even though the consequences were foreseeable.”

Prisoners ‘Effectively being Killed by the Conditions’ 

Former affairs adviser to the late President, Dr. Essam El-Haddad, and his son, Mr. Gehad El-Haddad, who was chief spokesman for the banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation, considered a terrorist group by Egyptian courts, at the time of his arrest, are among the thousands of other prisoners enduring similar conditions.

“These two men are effectively being killed by the conditions under which they are held and the denial of medical treatment. It appears that this is intentional or at the very least allowed to happen through the reckless disregard for their life and fate”, the experts noted.

“We have received credible evidence from various sources” that gross human rights violations may be a reality for thousands of detainees more across the State, “many of whom may be at risk of death”, they went on.