CAIRO: Around 30 rights activists and Kefaya movement (Enough) leaders protested Sunday in support of Kefaya members, political activists and two journalists, temporarily detained at Tora Mazraa Prison near Cairo. The activists, who were encircled and cordoned off by security police in front of the Supreme Court, had initially wanted to attend the detainees' trial but were denied entry. Seven of those protesting the detentions have been arrested thus far. "The police are currently blocking any access to them, says Aida Seif El-Dawla, human rights activist, as she stood near the court. "They have prevented us from attending their trial. They harassed us . pushed us and encircled us. All of the 40 detained activists, some of whom were put on trial Sunday, had started a hunger strike the day before, protesting the conditions of their detention and their treatment at the hands of local prison security. The political detainees said they were kept in prison cells in a "humiliating state, along with criminals, some of whom carry knives and other weapons; an act perceived as a threat to their lives. According to Seif El-Dawla, some of the criminals were also in possession of drugs. The detainees filed complaints with prison authorities but were ignored. They have been reportedly banned from meeting with anyone from outside the prison, including their lawyers, during the past three days. Sharing a cell with criminal convicts, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch, is "in violation of international standards requiring pre-trial detainees to be separated from convicted prisoners. Amnesty International has also received reports concerning some of Egypt's prisons, with Tora Mazraa topping the list. According to Amnesty, "these prisons lack adequate medical care and facilities, that prisoners are detained in cramped and unhygienic conditions that the food provided is inadequate and of poor quality and that, in some prisons, torture and ill-treatment are practiced by security officers on a routine basis. "Furthermore, prisoners held in the high security prison in Tora and Istiqbal Tora Prison have been denied the basic right to receive visits from lawyers and family members, following decrees issued by the Ministry of Interior in December 1993 and September 1994, respectively . This ban violates both international human rights standards and national legislation. Many of the detained were arrested as they took part in protests supporting two judges who underwent disciplinary hearings earlier for outlining what they called "fraud in Egypt's last presidential elections. The group that stood on trial Sunday was accused of humiliating Egypt's president by shouting slogans against him in public gatherings, and distributing leaflets "in an attempt to create public disorder. In a statement allegedly signed and sent by all 40 detainees, available on the Kefaya movement's official Web site, the pre-trial detainees demanded that an immediate investigation should be launched into the circumstances of their arrest. The detainees had also accused the state police of "thuggery, saying that they used "extreme force in dispersing protests. The detainees also said they were prevented from praying in the prison's main mosque and were denied access to newspapers. Press syndicate head, Galal Aref and Gamila Ismail, El-Ghad party spokesperson and Ayman Nour's wife, reportedly attempted to visit the detained on Saturday, along with lawyers and human rights activists Amir Salem and Ihab El-Khouly. Ten of the 40 arrested are part of the El-Ghad party, Ismail tells The Daily Star Egypt. Last month, Nour, Al-Ghad's jailed leader and one of the president's principal opponents in last year's presidential elections, also went on a hunger strike. Nour had demanded that the general prosecution improve the conditions of his detention but was ignored. Three days later, Nour, a diabetic, was moved to a public hospital as his condition reportedly worsened. Accused of forgery, he is serving a five-year prison sentence in Tora Mazraa. According to Ismail, Nour has now been on a hunger strike for 20 days and has been moved back into a prison. While he is still banned from writing, Ismail says he has written to those on the hunger strike supporting them.
