The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) calls for the immediate release of Ehab Masoud Goha, 51, who has been in pretrial detention for five years in connection with Case No. 1358 of 2019. Goha suffers from life-threatening medical negligence in prison due to the lack of treatment for complications of diabetes. He also got fluid buildup in the lungs while in prison. He became wheelchair-bound and unable to breathe properly after being imprisoned without being convicted of any crime.

On 28 October, Judge Wagdy Abdel Moneim, the head of the Third Terrorism Circuit in Badr, renewed Goha's detention for an additional 45 days, despite Goha exceeding the maximum period of pretrial detention more than three years ago. Goha did not attend the session to look into renewing his detention. However, EIPR lawyer told the judge that Goha was in critical care on an inhaler at the Miri Hospital in Alexandria at the time of the hearing, although his pretrial detention in the same case had been going on for more than five years without legal justification.

Goha was arrested from his home at dawn on 23 September 2019, after a security force raided his house. He was interrogated in connection with Case No. 1358 of 2019 (Supreme State Security), known in local media as the "Istiqlal Party" case. Istiqlal (independence) is a party that was banned by the judiciary in September 2014. The authorities arrested the party's leaders and many of its members, including Goha, five years after it was banned. Goha has since been held in pretrial detention.

Goha was 45 when he was detained. During his detention, he was moved to three prisons. He spent three years in Tora Prison, where he suffered burns on his leg after boiling water fell on it. He was then transferred to Badr 1 Prison, where he spent two more years, where he got fluid buildups in the lungs, causing him difficulty in breathing. In the beginning, the Badr prison administration allowed him to undergo surgery twice to remove cysts from his lungs. Still, it later replaced this with providing him with antibiotics only, which significantly affected his general health and made him wheelchair-bound and unable to move independently.

In August 2024, Goha was transferred from Badr Prison to Borg El-Arab Prison in Alexandria when reports emerged about poor detention conditions in Badr Prison, followed by the transfer of some detainees to different prisons across the country. Goha's health deteriorated after he was moved to Borg El-Arab Prison. As the prison hospital was not well-prepared, he was periodically transferred to the Miri Hospital in Alexandria to be placed on an inhaler. Still, he has not been able so far to undergo the necessary surgery to remove cysts from his lungs.

The suffering of Goha and his family continues as long as he remains in detention. In addition to his critical health condition, communication between him and his family became more difficult due to the burden his wife faces, as she has to travel from their place of residence in Gharbiya Governorate to Borg El-Arab Prison in Alexandria. Moreover, Goha's wife cannot visit him at the hospital, as the prison administration insists on moving him in a wheelchair to the prison's visit hall.

Goha's wife had previously submitted a request to the assistant interior minister for the Community Protection Sector (formerly the Prisons Authority) to transfer Goha to Wadi Al-Natroun Prison hospital, which is more prepared. Also, EIPR lawyer submitted two other requests to the Community Protection Sector in August to transfer Goha to Gamasa Prison as it is closer to his family's place of residence, and to enable him to undergo the necessary surgery to remove cysts from his lungs, but the lawyer received no response.

EIPR calls on Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky to release Goha immediately, as he has been detained in the same case for more than five years in violation of Article 143 of the Criminal Procedures Law, which stipulates that the maximum limit of pretrial detention is two years. EIPR stresses that no legal justification exists for holding a citizen in pretrial detention for more than double the legal limit. Eight others involved in the same case and having the same legal status as Goha were released, while Goha and 13 others remain in detention in violation of the law. EIPR stresses that Article 36 of the Prisons Organization Law allows for the release of a convict when he suffers from "a life-threatening illness or total disability", which applies to Goha who has been held in pretrial detainee without being convicted or even faced with any evidence.