The Washington Post: Another dissident dies in Egypt's prisons and its dictator jails more

An editorial for The Washington Post on Thursday addressed the Egyptian issue under the title "The death of another dissident in Egypt's prisons while its dictator continues to imprison more."

She referred to a letter written last year by a young director, Shadi Habash, in which he said, "I am dying slowly," describing how his detention in a prison without trial was renewed automatically every 45 days by a judge who did not bother to look at him or even his case file.

The newspaper reported that after two years after the prison extensions, Habash died last Saturday at the age of 24 and lost his life because he was helping to prepare a satirical video on President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

She criticized "neither his unjust prison nor his sudden death is unique" because, according to a statement issued by a coalition of Egyptian human rights groups, he is the third political prisoner to die in suspicious circumstances in cell No. 4 of Tora prison in Cairo, the past ten months.

It was preceded by Mustafa Qasim, a 54-year-old American citizen, who was arrested in a police campaign in 2013 and died last January, although he was innocent of any political activity or crime, says the Washington Post editorial.

The newspaper added that at least five other American citizens, and thousands of other Egyptians, are held in Tora and other crowded and unsanitary prisons for minor political misdemeanors, for example, seven other people were imprisoned for the video accused of Habash.

She hinted that the regime released about four thousand detainees last April 25, but none of them was among the tens of thousands of political prisoners. On the contrary, according to a report published on Tuesday by Egyptian human rights groups, Sisi's government "instead has launched security campaigns nationwide over the past two months and arrested dozens and added more prisoners of conscience to its seriously overcrowded prisons."

The Washington Post indicated that a number of these people were arrested simply for discussing the regime's handling of the Coruna epidemic. Fifteen people, including doctors and a pharmacist, were arrested after complaining about a lack of medical equipment, and five others were arrested after they posted a video requesting the release of relatives because of the risk of infection from Corona.