<<previous  |  index  |  next>>

VIII. Denial of Family Visits

The majority of detainees who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that detention facility officials frequently denied them family visits, or adequate time during visits.

The authorities routinely denied security suspects access to family members during the initial period following arrest, when prison officials hold detainees incommunicado while conducting interrogations. Such periods sometimes lasted several months. However, the denial of family visits sometimes lasted far longer, even after interrogation had ended. Scores of detainees interviewed said that prison officials had deprived them of contact with their families since their arrest, a period lasting up to two years. Fu’ad stated that since his arrest 10 months before our interview he had had no meetings or access to his family and that the Asayish “did not explain to me why I have no visits.”¹⁴¹ Detained seven months prior to our interview with them, brothers Karim and Khalid stated, “We have not been allowed any family access and our family does not know we are here.”¹⁴²

Detainees who did receive family visits complained that the visits often lasted only a few minutes, and were conducted in the office of the director of the detention facility, in the presence of officials. Nabil stated that the Asayish had allowed him only one family visit during his year of detention: “I was allowed to see my wife and sister for three minutes on April 20, 2006.… Since then, I am back in solitary status.”¹⁴³ `Isam stated that after three months in detention, prison officials allowed him one family visit lasting one to two minutes.¹⁴⁴ Nasir stated: “After nine months, I had a meeting with my mother for five minutes. They had someone monitoring the meeting. This was on February 9, 2006.”¹⁴⁵