The United Nations on Friday evening called on the Egyptian authorities to release "those convicted of crimes other than the use of violence" and those in pretrial detention, to prevent them from contracting the Coronavirus.
A spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Robert Colville, recommended that the Egyptian authorities follow the example of other countries that have organized new regulations in prisons because of the threat of the emerging Corona virus.
"We are very concerned about the risk of the rapid spread of the Corona virus among more than 114,000 in Egyptian prisons," Colville said. "Among those we recommend are administrative detainees and those who are arbitrarily detained because of their political or human rights work."
He also recommended the release of people with special cases of weakness due to their age (children and the elderly) and due to serious medical conditions.
"Prisons and detention centers in Egypt are usually overcrowded, unsanitary and under-resourced. Detainees are routinely denied access to adequate medical care and treatment," Colville said.
"We are concerned by reports we have received that the government is striving to suppress criticism on social media, and silence the work of human rights defenders and journalists who focus on the emerging Corona pandemic," he added.
Last month, Egyptian activists broadcast a leaked message from Scorpion Prison, revealing the spread of Corona's epidemic inside the prison, which lacks the most basic necessities of life, and confirming that the prison administration ignored the prisoners' calls to speed up their treatment and release.
On March 19, the Egyptian authorities decided to release 15 members from opposition parties and political forces. The move met with satisfaction between political and partisan sectors in Egypt, and as a result of that there were frequent demands for the release of others.
It was noticeable that the released list did not include any names affiliated with the Islamic trend, and human rights reports said at the time that the authorities continue to arrest more citizens on the traditional charges of belonging to a banned group or helping them achieve their goals.
The arrest of political activists and civil society forces in Egypt raises European and American criticism, while Cairo says it is committed to applying the law and upholding freedoms.
In a total, Friday evening, Egypt recorded 66 deaths and 985 cases of the emerging coronavirus.
As of Friday evening, the number of Corona sufferers worldwide exceeded 1 million and 56 thousand people, of whom about 56 thousand died, and about 224 thousand recovered.