The Ministry of Interior should keep Malak Al-Kashif in a women’s detention, and stop preventing providing her with medicine, putting her life in danger.

22/3/2019

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) demands the Prisons Department of the Ministry of Interior to immediately stop the denial of access to medication to Malak Al- Kashif in her detention in solitary confinement in Torra prison for men, accounts the Ministry the full responsibility for endangering her life or physical health, and detaining Malak in a women’s detention facility, to be treated as a woman in as per her self-defined gender identity which is also consistent with the medical reports issued by Egyptian hospitals.

ECRF also condemns the failure of the Egyptian justice system in dealing with transgenders in a manner that is consistent with the international standards concerning the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty and the constitutional rights guaranteed to all Egyptian citizens without discrimination, and demands stopping the intransigence with her lawyers and enable them to obtain visitation permits and issuance of certificates and documents related to the case, to enable them to defend their client in the best way possible.

The State Security Prosecution decided on March 19th, extending the custody of Malak Al-Kashif for an additional 15 days in case No. 1739 of 2018, State Security, where she faces charges of belonging to a terrorist group, and the use of her Facebook account for the purpose of committing a crime punishable by law.

The Prison Service Sector of the Ministry of Interior has decided to place her in solitary confinement at Mazraa’a prison in Torra Prison for men, and not in a women’s detention location. The prison also denied Malak of the delivery of food, insulin and other necessary medication for her, thereby endangering her physical health and life, which is a gross disregard for the sanctity of the right to life.

Malak’s lawyer was also exposed to intransigence by some prosecutors in the extraction of certificates and visitation permits to his client.

ECRF considers detaining Malak Al-Kashif in a men’s detention facility to be a violation of article 10 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides for the humane treatment of persons deprived of their liberty and respect for their inherent dignity.

This has been interpreted by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in its General Comment No. 21, that humane treatment mentioned in article 10, paragraph 1, of the Covenant is not only limited to the general prohibition of torture and other inhumane treatment, but rather extends to not exposing persons deprived of their liberty to any hardship or restriction other than those resulting from deprivation of liberty, and ensures the respect for the dignity of such persons under the same conditions guaranteed for the dignity of free persons. It also prohibits denying the provision of medication and food for Malak Al-Kashif and considers it a threat to her physical integrity, and a violation of her right to health care during the period of detention.

The United Nations General Assembly has stressed on Rule 24 of its resolution 70/175 of 2015, of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, on the right of persons deprived of their liberty to access to essential health services free of charge and without discrimination on the basis of their legal status, and that their families should not be denied access to delivering essential medication which poses a threat to their physical integrity and serious danger to their lives.

Malak Al-Kashif is a transgender woman who suffers from gender dysphoria disorder and is going through advanced stages of the process of gender reassignment treatment for which she has all medical reports proving it. Such reports were issued by Al Hussein University Hospital, and were in her possession when she was arrested.

Although her gender is classified as “male” in official documentations – which reveals the suffering of transgenders in Egypt – she must be treated as female, held in the proper facilities of detention as a female, not in solitary confinement in a men’s detention facility.

ECRF – in a previous statement – condemned subjecting Malak to sexual harassment and forced anal examination which is a flagrant violation of privacy and human dignity, and constitutes a pattern of discrimination and violence against sexual minority groups in Egypt, as well as a path of cruel and inhumane treatment that amounts to torture.

ECRF repeats the call for the immediate and unconditional release of Malak Al-Kashif, as she is a prisoner of conscience that Egyptian government should preserve her inherent right to express her opinion while not confined to prisons and suffering from violating the sanctity and dignity of her body, nor to preventing access to medication and food.