Dozens of detainees in Scorpion Prison in Tora Prison Area, south of the Egyptian capital, were fainted as they continued an open hunger strike, in protest at the death of two detainees during one week due to the severe cold.

The detainees - who numbered about three hundred and started their strike last Saturday - also protest what they say is starvation by the prison authorities, as well as the denial of clothing and blankets.

Striking prisoners say that the prison administration withdrew heating in the cold winter, reduced the number of blankets, confiscated winter clothes, and reduced food intake.

They add that this is done in concrete cells designed to prevent the entry of the sun's heat and not to prevent the cold.

In these circumstances, two political prisoners died, the journalist Mahmoud Abdel-Majid Saleh, who died in Scorpion, and Alaa Eddin Saeed, who died in the Burj Al Arab prison.

A third detainee died while being arrested at Luxor police station on January 8.

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According to human rights sources, the detainee Alaa El Din Said died inside his prison in Borg El Arab prison, north of Cairo, where he was serving a 15-year prison sentence on political charges.

The sources reported that Alauddin had a regular "cold", but that the prison administration’s ignorance quickly aggravated his condition, as he continued to suffer from the lack of treatment or heating methods, and he suffered a tremor that resulted in his death in his cell.

As for the arrested journalist, Mahmoud Abdel-Majid Mahmoud Saleh, he died inside his prison cell in Tora Prison, a highly-guarded prison known as "Scorpio", as a result of deliberate medical neglect, cold and hunger.

Human rights sources and local media revealed the death of Mahmoud Mohamed, 37, who was being held in Bandar Luxor police station, because of his deteriorating health.

At the beginning of last week, female political prisoners in Egypt announced their refusal to receive food until four demands were met in protest against their medical neglect in Qanater prison (north of Cairo), against the background of the death of the detainee Maryam Salem inside the prison due to deliberate medical negligence, according to their description.

And human rights organizations said that Maryam Salem, 32, from Sinai, died in her prison in Al-Qanater prison on December 21, 2019, in an incident considered the first of its kind since the summer of 2013.

A report of the United Nations experts issued after the death of the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi confirmed that Morsi was being held in conditions that could be described as brutality, especially during the five years he spent in Tora prison.

Experts added that what happened to the late president may amount to being considered arbitrary killing by approval of the state, adding that they obtained compelling evidence from reliable sources that thousands of other prisoners in Egypt may suffer grave violations of their human rights.

They made it clear that many prisoners may be at risk of death because they appear to be systematic and intended practices by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to silence dissidents.