The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) calls on Interior Minister Major General Mahmoud Tawfik to enforce the law and allow political prisoner Mohamed Adel, the former spokesman for the April 6th Movement, to take his exams, which will begin on May 17th. Adel is a post-graduate student enrolled in a public law diploma at the Faculty of Law, Mansoura University.

In December 2024, the Gamasa prison administration prevented Adel from taking his first-semester exams, even though his family abided by the legal procedures and his father handed over the exam schedule stamped by the college administration to the Prisons Authority. This prompted Adel to announce a hunger strike to protest the denial of his right to education, which is guaranteed by the constitution and the law. The prison administration responded by preventing Adel's wife from visiting him in Gamasa prison in Dakahlia governorate, then transferred him to the 10th of Ramadan prison 4 in Sharqiya governorate.

Adel's family and lawyers tried every possible way to stop his denial of access to exams, which can only be considered contrary to the Egyptian constitution. Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the right to education for all citizens. In contrast, Article 56 stipulates that prison is a place of "reform and rehabilitation" and not a place to implement custodial punishments only. The Ministry of Interior is denying Adel his constitutional right, which he obtained during a previous period of detention, when he enrolled in two post-graduate programs at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. In 2016, Adel obtained a diploma in civil society and human rights; in 2017, he obtained a diploma in NGO management.

In an attempt to buy time, EIPR lawyer representing Adel submitted an official request to the Community Protection Sector (formerly the Prisons Authority) to enable him to take his exams in prison. However, the Sector's Human Rights Department director said that Adel "can resume his study after his release from prison". This prompted the lawyer to issue warnings to both the Minister of Interior and his assistant for the Community Protection Sector in their capacities, demanding that Adel be allowed to take his exams next month.

EIPR lawyer Aziza al-Taweel filed Appeal No. 50165 of 79 before the Administrative Judiciary Court against the Minister of Interior, his assistant for the Community protection Sector, the undersecretary of the Faculty of Law at Mansoura University, and the dean of the same faculty. In her appeal, Taweel requested the revocation of the adverse decision to prevent Adel from taking his oral and written exams on time while in prison. She pointed out that Article 31 of the law regulating the community reform and rehabilitation centres urges the administrations of public reform and rehabilitation centres to encourage inmates to learn and to facilitate study for those who wish to complete their studies.

The educational institutions in which inmates are enrolled should allocate special committees for them at their detention centers to enable them to take their exams, unless the head of the educational institution requests the transfer of inmates to take practical or oral exams outside the detention centers if needed, unless there is a risk of their transfer estimated by the Minister of Interior or his authorized representative.

Adel's freedom has been restricted for more than 11 years, either by being held in pretrial detention, or being subjected to police surveillance every day for 12 hours for one and a half years, or by serving unfair prison sentences issued against him on political charges. Over the past six years, Adel has been subjected to double abuse, ranging from prolonged pretrial detention to "recycling" into new cases on similar charges. In September 2023, the Aga Misdemeanour Court of Appeal in Mansoura upheld Adel's four-year prison sentence. Although he spent two years and seven months in pretrial detention pending the case, his jail term was counted from the moment the verdict was issued, without counting the years of his pretrial detention. Therefore, Adel is expected to finish serving his jail term in September 2027.

EIPR reiterates its rejection of Adel's continued detention. Adel was supposed to have already been released after serving more than four years in connection with the case in which he was sentenced. It calls on Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky and Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfik to enforce the law by allowing Adel to take his exams next month and exercise his basic rights guaranteed by the constitution.