Rights lawyer Aziza Eltawil filed a complaint to Egypt’s public prosecutor seeking an investigation into an alleged assault and attempted murder of activist Mohamed Adel at 10th of Ramadan Prison 4, she told Al Manassa.
Eltawil said the complaint concerns the beating and attempted strangulation of Adel, a former spokesperson for the April 6 Youth Movement, inside the prison on Saturday.
Eltawil, who represents Adel, said the complaint, filed under No. 1515656 in the public prosecutor’s petitions registry, calls for prosecutors to review surveillance footage, order a medical examination, hold the assailants accountable, and question officials responsible for managing the prison.
Adel’s wife, Rofaida Hamdy, described the incident in a Facebook post and confirmed it to Al Manassa.
Her spouse “was beaten and choked for three hours by criminal prisoners inside the holding area, under the eyes of security and with the blessing of the prison administration, the warden, and the head of investigations,” she said.
Rofaida went to visit Adel on Saturday and, after completing the usual procedures, waited for him in the visiting hall. She said he went back inside after learning the family had brought food for the visit, and she noticed informants and officers running after him.
Adel has been on hunger strike since Dec. 7, protesting his detention conditions and what she described as “mistreatment,” threats to deny him visits and outdoor exercise, as well as blocking him from continuing postgraduate studies and access to medical care, Rofaida had previously told Al Manassa.
Hamdy said that about 10 minutes later, the head of investigations and the prison warden came out and told her Adel was refusing the visit. She said they asked her to wait and try again, then later repeated that he was refusing the visit. Hamdy said she requested a handwritten note from Adel confirming the refusal, but was told he would not write one, which led her to believe officials were lying.
Hamdy was able to visit Adel on Wednesday and asked him what happened on Saturday. She said he told her he had not refused the visit, but objected to receiving food.
“I went in and told them, ‘I agreed with you, do not accept food,’ and I raised my voice, so they forced me into the intake cell with criminal detainees,” Rofaida quoted Adel as saying. “Then the criminal detainees attacked me and assaulted me by beating and choking me for three hours, while security personnel watched through the slot in the door.”
The detainees threatened to kill him, Rofaida described, and that prison management stayed silent, thereby authorizing the assault. She said he told her the cameras recorded the attack and everything that happened.
Rofaida told Al Manassa she noticed bruising on Adel’s right leg and marks of choking on his neck during Wednesday’s visit. She added that his hunger strike has caused significant weight loss.
Separately, rights lawyer Amr El-Qadi said he filed a complaint to the 10th of Ramadan Prosecution seeking an investigation into Rofaida’s account of assault and attempted murder. He said he attached it to an earlier complaint about alleged threats his client received in prison, filed as No. 8264 for 2025 in the Mansoura Appeals petitions registry.
El-Qadi told Al Manassa prosecutors summoned Adel's wife to give testimony on Sunday regarding what she had published.
Gamasa prison authorities barred Adel in December 2024 from sitting first-semester exams, despite his family following legal procedures, including submitting an exam schedule stamped by his faculty to the Prison Authority. Prison authorities then barred his wife from visiting, and transferred him to 10th of Ramadan Prison 4.
Authorities detained Adel in 2018 at the Aga police station in Dakahlia governorate while he was serving court-ordered police probation for 12 hours daily under a sentence linked to “protesting without a permit.” The Abdeen appeals misdemeanors court later sentenced him to three years in prison and three years of police probation.
Two days after his arrest, he was questioned in Case No. 5606 for 2018 (Aga Administrative) on accusations of “joining a terrorist group and spreading false news,” relating to his criticism of International Monetary Fund policies, Egypt’s borrowing, and the death penalty.
He was later charged in two additional cases with the Sherbin Administrative and the Supreme State Security. Both cases included similar accusations of belonging to a terrorist group, financing terrorism, and communicating with its leadership while in detention.
In September 2023, Adel’s wife petitioned President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi asking for a pardon for her spouse, the account said.
In May 2024, 80 Egyptian and international rights organizations called for Adel’s “immediate release,” saying Gamasa prison authorities were depriving him of adequate food, harming his health.
