Leukemia-infected young detainee fighting for life in Egypt’s notorious prisons  

Egyptian activists have launched a campaign on the social media that calls for the release of a young detainee who suffers from leukemia.

Activists said that they suspect that the young detainee was afflicted by leukemia the amid poor conditions of the Egyptian prisons.  .

In this context, activists have launched a hashtag on the Facebook saying, #Release_Al-Khattib_for_treatment.

On October 24, 2014, Ahmed al-Khattib, who was only 19 years old at that time, was detained, transferred to the Appeal Prison, and finally to Tora Prison after he was sentenced to 10 years on March 23, 2016.

According to the Egyptian Observatory for Human Rights, “Months ago, Ahmed started to feel sick as a result of medical negligence, which is a normal default in prison, then a request was submitted to the National Council for Human Rights to let Ahmed see a specialist doctor,” It added,”Then, he was transferred from Tora prison to see a specialist doctor but unfortunately, he missed the appointment at outdoors clinics as a result of the negligence of the prisons’ officers who delayed his release from hospital.”

The rights organization continued, “Ahmed is now at Tora Liman Prison Hospital, but he needs to be transferred to another hospital as soon as possible to detect his illness.”

Moreover, the Egyptian Observatory for Human Rights condemned the abuses against the detainee and the negligence in providing the necessary medical care for the patient.

It also held the security forces responsible for his safety and asked them to provide him the necessary health care in order not to expose his life to danger.

Leukemia-infected ‘Mohanad’ died last October due to medical negligence in Egypt’s prisons:

Last year, Mohanad, the January Revolution Icon, died after suffering in Egypt’s prisons. Mohanad died on Monday, October 3 after suffering medical negligence in Egypt’s prisons.

Egypt’s social media mourned Mohanad known as ‘January Revolution Bee’ a few days after his 20th birthday. Hours after his death, the hashtag “#Mohanad_died” rated #1 on the popular trend in Egypt.

Mohanad is one of thousands Egyptian youth who have been lying in Egypt’s prisons after the military coup had crushed their dreams of freedom.

After the military coup in 2013, he participated in the demonstrations and sit-ins against the ousting of Egypt’s first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi after January Revolution.

On 17 December 2013, Mohanad met what he had never expected to happen after January Revolution. While he was photographing one of the demonstrations with his camera,  he was detained by the security forces.

He was only 17 years old and he was detained in juvenile custody when he was sentenced to  5 years in prison. However,  it was commuted later to 3 months at the Court of Appeals. When he was released, Mohanad continued to document all the incidents that his nation was passing by through his camera.

Then, the second time he was arrested came on January 21, 2015 when he faced the same charges “photographing a demonstration” which became a crime after the military coup, and he was detained in Borg AL-Arab prison. But after only two month, he discovered that the leukemia (blood cancer) has spread in his body by 93% to start his suffering journey of ill-treatment and medical negligence inside Egypt’s prisons.

Many died in Egypt’s prisons as result of torture and medical negligence, according to rights groups.

The Arab Organization for Human Rights(AOHR UK), the number of deaths in Egypt prisons reached 491 people since the military coup on July 3,2013 to June 2016.