No legal violations in Mrs. Mubarak’s visit to jailed sons: human rights council member

The visit of wife of former president Hosni Mubarak, Suzanne Mubarak, to her two sons Gamal and Alaa in jail had stirred much controversy amid talk of violations to prison law. The statements of activist and member of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) Nasser Amin, however, claims the opposite.

“I personally went to the prison where Mr. Mubarak’s sons are detained and checked the records of Mrs. Mubarak’s visit and made sure no violations were committed,” Mr. Amin told Al Arabiya.

Press reports following the visit, the first Mrs. Mubarak made to her sons, said that she and her daughters-in-law, who accompanied her to the prison, stayed for three hours and that they all had “iftar” (the breaking of the fast) together. According to the law, no visits should be allowed after five o’clock, when the prison closes its doors, while the iftar in Cairo is after 6:30 pm.

Deputy Interior Minister Major General Mohamed Naguib also denied allegations that an exception was made for the Mubarak family and insisted that the visit started at 2:30 and lasted for an hour-and-a-half.

Interior Minister Mansour El Essawi also vowed to impose firm penalties on any of the prison administrators that would prove to have committed any legal violations during Mrs. Mubarak’s visit.

As for rumors that Gamal and Alaa Mubarak are getting special treatment, Mr. Amin stressed they were baseless.

“They are treated like all other prison inmates and the same goes for other members of the former regime,” he said.

He added that the prisoners are even complaining that the prison administration does not allow them to pray the “taraweeh,” the evening prayers that follow the iftar meal in Ramadan.

“They also complain that they are not allowed to use their cell phones and that they are constantly being searched by the prison administrators.”

Regarding objections to keeping Mr. Mubarak in a hospital instead of detaining him in jail, Mr. Amin explained that during his visit, he and the NHCR delegation that accompanied him checked the prison cells and made sure that none of them is equipped to receive someone in the health condition of the former president.

While Mrs. Mubarak’s visit to her sons was her first, it is the third for Khadiga Al Gammal and Haidi Rasekh, the wives of Gamal and Alaa, respectively. In the first visit on April 13, Gamal’s father-in-law Mahmoud Al Gammal accompanied the two wives while in the second, which was on August 8, the father-in-law brought with him Alaa’s son Omar who was also present in the third visit.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)
URL: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/08/16/162633.html