Health professionals urge Blinken to press Egypt on prison conditions
More than 200 health professionals have signed on to a letter asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken to urge Egypt to address dire conditions inside its prisons.
A letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken from more than 200 medical professionals urges him to pressure Egypt over the inadequate medical care and dire humanitarian conditions in the country’s prisons.
“I am appealing to you directly to intervene for the sake of those in dire need,” read the letter organized by Freedom Initiative, a Washington-based advocacy group.
The health workers called on Blinken to address prison overcrowding with his Egyptian counterparts and to urge them to release “high numbers of prisoners held unjustly in pretrial detention, on politically motivated allegations, or who are at grave risk of contracting Covid-19.”
The letter also calls for the secretary to press for an immediate investigation into “inhumane” prison conditions. The probe should include oversight from international bodies and allow access to representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the letter read.
