Detained journalist Solafa Magdy has accused police officers and personnel at Qanater Prison of physical assault, harassment and intimidation, according to legal complaints filed to several state authorities by Magdy’s defense team on Saturday.
Magdy was arrested alongside her husband on November 26, 2019 and has been held in remand since, most recently at Qanater Prison, pending investigation into charges of “spreading false news” and “joining a terrorist organization.”
Three incidents are described in the complaint, a copy of which Mada Masr obtained, and in which Magdy’s defense team cite a testimony she gave to the court during a January 19 detention renewal session.
Her complaint first details an incident of assault that occurred while she was being transferred to court for a detention renewal hearing on January 19. Magdy states that police personnel assaulted her and forced her to remove her clothes under the pretense of searching her.
Magdy also told the court that in a separate incident she was subjected to a forced pelvic examination that led to heavy bleeding.
In a third incident on November 29, Magdy was blindfolded and subjected to threats and intimidation from a person whose identity she was not informed of and whom she describes as trying to recruit her to act as an informant for security agencies.
“When I told him that … I will not do this, he threatened me, saying that I wouldn’t be able to see my son again and made threats related to my husband too,” Magdy told the court on January 19 according to the complaints. Magdy’s husband and fellow journalist, Hossam al-Sayyad, has also been detained since November 2019.
According to the partisan Darb news outlet, Magdy’s defense team has submitted the complaints to seven state authorities: the public prosecutor, the State Security Prosecution, the public prosecution offices of Banha and Qanater, the interior minister, the head of the Qalyubiya Security Directorate, the prison commissioner and the head of the judicial team investigating her in one of the cases in which she is charged.
After news of her complaints broke on Sunday, the Interior Ministry issued a response on Monday “categorically denying” the accusations and accusing the reports of spreading “Muslim Brotherhood rumors and lies to incite public opinion.”
Magdy’s health condition has reportedly deteriorated in prison. After undergoing surgery for cancer in 2017, she was suspected to have a recurrent tumor by the prison’s doctor, who later excluded the possibility, her lawyer Khaled Ali told Mada Masr.
Her family has filed several requests to have Magdy examined at a private medical institution at their expense. However, the requests have been repeatedly denied.
In the complaints submitted to various authorities, Magdy’s mother also reported that her daughter was in an extremely fragile condition when she visited her on January 27, saying that two police personnel had to support her to walk to the visitors’ room.
Solafa and Sayyad’s family and friends and their defense lawyer Khaled Ali spoke recently to Mada Masr, recounting their journey and the disruption facing their family and their child.
Magdy and Sayyad’s prolonged detention has left their son without his parents, despite legal provisions that allow for detention to be postponed for one parent in the event that both parents of a child under the age of 15 face legal charges, Ali told Mada Masr.
