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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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10 July 2009

Alert: Egypt – Campaigners are requested to write letters of support to Prisoner of Faith Khayrat Al Shater

Contents
1. Summary
2. Background
3. Action required

1. Summary

Khayrat Al Shater has been imprisoned since January 2007. Despite two and a half years of incarceration there have been no developments in his legal case. His lawyer informed the IHRC that there have been no changes and the legal bureaucracy has become paralysing. The case is expected to be drawn out since no dates have been scheduled for trials or sentencing.

Mr Al Shater has finally been given access to medicines and family visits, however the prospect of uncertainty will inevitably have a demoralising effect. Therefore, as there has been no legal progression and the situation remains uncertain, IHRC requests all campaigners to write letters of support and encouragement to him, especially with the month of Ramadan fast approaching.

2. Background

In dawn raids carried out on 2 January 2007, state security services arrested 29 Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the governorates of Sharqiya, Gharbiya and Daqahliya. The detentions come in the context of the latest Egyptian government vetted security and media campaigns against the Muslim Brotherhood in which almost 200 members have been arrested in recent weeks. Many of those detained were arrested while performing the Eid prayers all over the country. Islamic publishing houses and private companies belonging to Muslim Brotherhood members were also shut down. A conjunctivitis professor at Al-Azhar University was also detained in his clinic in Heliopolis in front of his patients.

The detainees include Eng. Mohamed Khayrat Al Shater, the second deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Shater’s health is considerably deteriorating due to the poor prison conditions he is being held in. The prisoners are detained in 3 × 8 metres cell where 17 individuals are piled up and sleep on the floor. The cell is opened for only 1 1/2 hours every day. The detainees have been denied blankets.

Dr. Mohammed Ramadan, who is in charge of Al Shater’s medical treatment, said the MB Deputy had trouble breathing several times inside the prison cell. This was due to the high level of humidity and inadequate ventilation inside the prison cell, which is closed all the time with the air polluted by cigarette smoke from many of the criminal prisoners he is confined with. Dr. Ramadan added that Al Shater, prior to his arrest, was scheduled to have a cardiac catheterisation to examine the condition of his heart.

For further background information, please refer to the previous alerts:

08 January 2007
29 Muslim Brotherhood Members arrested, Egypt
https://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=2388

08 January 2007
Action Alert: Egypt – Crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood Members in Egypt
https://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=2392

May 2007
[PDF] Engineer Khayrat Al Shater Prisoner of Faith file
https://www.ihrc.org.uk/file/PF070515KhairatAlShaterFinal.pdf

3. Action required

Write to Khayrat Al Shater personally, expressing moral support for his plight. Letters should be addressed to:

Khayrat Al Shater
Turah Jail
Cairo – Turah
Egypt

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For more information, please contact the office on the numbers or email below

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“And what reasons have you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.”
Holy Qur’an: Chapter 4, Verse 75

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