URGENT ACTION

UNJUSTLY JAILED STUDENT DENIED PROSTHETIC LEG
Egyptian student Oqba Hashad has spent five years and nine months in pretrial detention as punishment for his brother’s human rights activism. He is held in 10th of Ramadan Prison, where authorities continue to cruelly deny him a prosthetic leg, which he needs to walk unassisted as his right leg has been amputated above the knee since his childhood. Although the prison administration began procedures to provide Oqba Hashad with a functional prosthetic leg in February 2025, he has yet to receive one. Egyptian authorities should release him immediately and unconditionally as his detention is solely linked to his brother’s human rights activism. Pending his release, they should urgently provide him with a prosthetic leg.

TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER

Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky Ayyad 
Office of the Public Prosecutor, Madinat al-Rehab 
Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: +202 2577 4716; Twitter/X: @EgyptianPPO 

Dear Counsellor,

I write to you to express my concern over the prolonged arbitrary detention since 20 May 2019 of 28-year-old student Oqba Hashad solely for his brother’s human rights activism. On 20 February 2024, a judge ordered Oqba Hashad’s release on the grounds that his pretrial detention in Case No. 7769/2019 of the Supreme Security State Prosecution (SSSP) had exceeded the two-year limit under Egyptian law. However, instead of releasing him, security forces subjected him to enforced disappearance from 22 February to 2 March 2024. He was then taken to the SSSP, where prosecutors ordered his detention in a new Case No. 3391/2023 of the SSSP on similar bogus charges of joining and financing a terrorist group. The abusive practice, commonly referred to as “rotation,” is systematically used by authorities to keep people locked up indefinitely without trial beyond the two-year limit stipulated by Egyptian law.

Following a childhood accident, Oqba Hashad’s right leg was amputated above the knee, and since then he requires a prosthetic leg to move unassisted. On 4 January 2024, following his family’s repeated requests and supporter mobilization, prison authorities provided Oqba Hashad with a new prosthetic leg since his old prosthetic broke in August 2022. However, it was unusable, as it was size 40 while Oqba Hashad needs a size 45. According to an independent medical report reviewed by Amnesty International, using it could lead to further health complications, including spinal and mobility related issues and skin irritation and scarring. On 10 January 2024, Oqba Hashad’s family submitted a request to the prosecution for a doctor to visit him and take measurements for an appropriate prosthetic leg. Over a year later, on 4 February 2025, the prison administration called Oqba Hashad’s mother to ask her to bring his previous prosthetic leg to prison and on 6 February, they visited his cell to take measurements with the declared aim to provide him with a functional prosthetic leg. However, at the time of writing, Oqba Hashad is yet to receive a new prosthetic leg. 

Oqba Hashad’s physical and mental health is extremely poor after nearly six years of arbitrary detention in cruel and inhumane conditions of detention. Not having a prosthetic leg had very negative consequences on his health, he suffers from severe back pain and moves with great difficulty. This situation is dramatically affecting his mental health, according to his relatives. 

I urge you to ensure that Oqba Hashad is immediately and unconditionally released and all charges against him dropped as he is detained solely as a punishment for his brother’s activism. Pending his release, he must be granted a suitable prosthetic leg as well as regular access to his family, lawyers and adequate healthcare, including in outside hospitals if necessary, and held in conditions that comply with international standards for the treatment of prisoners.

Yours sincerely,
Additional information

Oqba Hashad has been arbitrarily detained for five years and nine months without trial, solely due to his family affiliation, in particular the human rights activism of his brother Amr Hashad, a human rights activist who left Egypt in 2019. Prison authorities had interrogated Oqba Hashad on multiple occasions, most recently in October 2023, about his brother’s human rights work and contact with his family in Egypt. They also questioned Oqba Hashad on whether he had shared any information with his brother about his prison conditions. His brother Amr Hashad had been arrested in 2014 in connection with his activism with the student union at Assiut University. Subsequently, a court sentenced Amr Hashad to three years in prison after convicting him of charges of joining a terrorist organization, attempting to overthrow the government and inciting protests. From exile, Amr Hashad continued to document human rights violations in Egypt including enforced disappearances and cruel and inhuman detention conditions. Oqba Hashad’s mother was also detained and questioned for nine hours during a visit to Shebin Al-Kom prison, where Oqba Hashad was held at the time, in a relation to a Facebook post written by Amr Hashad in December 2020 about his brother being banned from accessing his prosthetic leg and the injustices suffered by their family. 
Since August 2022, in violation of the absolute violation of torture and other ill-treatment, prison authorities have been cruelly denying Oqba Hashad access to adequate healthcare and a prosthetic leg, causing him severe physical and psychological pain and suffering, including as he is forced to rely on other prisoners to meet his most basic needs. On 9 January 2024, Oqba Hashad was transferred to court without a wheelchair, hopping on one leg, and was forced to sit on the floor in front of the judge. The prison authorities are also refusing to grant him specialized medical care, not available in prison, raising fears about permanent and irreversible damage to his spinal column, according to independent doctors consulted by his relatives. 
On 7 August 2022, relatives of Oqba Hashad’s cellmate, who had visited the Wadi al-Natroun prison that day, called Oqba Hashad’s family to inform them that his prosthetic leg broke. His family rushed to the prison to collect the broken prosthetic leg, and took it for repairs at a specialised clinic, where a doctor and an engineer told them that a replacement was needed. The family did not have the financial means to replace it, and therefore sought to repair it instead. On 9 August 2022, when his relatives returned to the prison with the prosthetic leg, the prison authorities insisted on carrying out a thorough inspection, attempted to dismantle it and informed the family that they would submit it for further inspections. Oqba Hashad also suffers from severe back pain as he was his forced to sleep on the floor in his cell in Wadi El Natroun prison. In March 2024, after appearing in front of the SSSP for interrogation in a new Case No. 3391/2023 of the SSSP, Oqba Hashad was transferred to in the 10th of Ramadan prison (section 2), where he remains. During family visits, he told his family that the conditions in the 10th of Ramadan prison (section 2) were better than Wadi El Natroun without specifying details. Amnesty International has documented the cruel and inhumane conditions of detention inside the 10th of Ramadan prison (section 6). According to lawyers and relatives of detainees, all detainees are deprived of sunlight and only permitted daily exercise indoors. Moreover, following a hunger strike by detainees in January 2025 the authorities carried out reprisals including by transferring at least three detainees to prisons notorious for their harsh detention conditions, after confiscating their belongings.
In May 2019, National Security Agency (NSA) agents stormed Oqba Hashad’s student residence at the University of Sadat City (USC), in Menoufia governorate, and arrested everyone without a warrant. All other students were released within days, except for Oqba Hashad. Following his arbitrary arrest, security forces forcibly disappeared Oqba Hashad for 77 days and subjected him to torture and other ill-treatment, including suspension by his arms from the ceiling, and electric shocks on his genitals and stump of his leg. On 1 August 2019, a prosecutor ordered his pre-trial detention pending investigations into charges of “joining a group formed against the rule of law” and “participating in demonstrations to overthrow the regime”. Since then, his pretrial detention, which has long exceeded the two-year limit permitted under Egyptian law, has been extended. 
As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Egypt must fulfil its obligations to ensure that when persons with disabilities are deprived of their liberty, they are, on an equal basis with others, entitled to guarantees in accordance with international human rights law and are provided with reasonable accommodation and with health services specifically because of their disabilities.
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Arabic and English.
You can also write in your own language.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 18 August 2025.
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.

NAME AND PRONOUN: Oqba Hashad (he/him).

LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde12/7901/2024/en/.
Additional targets

His Excellency Mr Sherif Ahmed Mahmoud Kamel
Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt  
26 South Street, W1K 1DW 
Tel.: 020 7499 3304/2401  
Fax: 020 7491 1542 
E-mail address: egtamboff@gmail.com   
               Egyemb2020@gmail.com 
Salutation: Your Excellency