A report by an independent Egyptian human rights organization revealed what it described as the difficult conditions in Egyptian prisons, pointing to the increase in the number of prisons and prisoners since the January 2011 revolution.

The report issued by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information titled "Waiting for you: 78 prisons, including 35 after the January revolution ... on the difficult conditions of prisoners and prisons in Egypt."

The report indicated that the number of new prisons that were issued decisions to establish after the January revolution and so far has reached 35 prisons, in addition to 43 main prisons before the January revolution.

To bring the number of basic prisons to 78 prisons.

The human rights organization estimated the number of prisoners, remand detainees and detainees in Egypt until the beginning of March 2021 at about 120,000 prisoners, including about 65,000 prisoners and political prisoners, about 54 prisoners and criminal detainees, and about a thousand detainees who did not know the reasons for their detention.

It also estimated that the total number of sentenced prisoners reached about 82,000, while the number of pretrial detainees reached about 37,000.

The number of prisoners in Egypt according to the report of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

Violations and discrimination

The report indicated that the Ministry of Interior continues, through the Prisons Department, to practice discrimination between prisoners, based on the prisoner's background and the reasons for his imprisonment. Opposition political prisoners are subjected to abuse, oppression, and denial of many of the rights guaranteed to them by the constitution and the law, such as visiting, receiving food, or the right to call Telephony, or health care;

And even depriving them of attending the renewal of their imprisonment sessions.

On the other hand, care, entertainment and services are provided to those accused of belonging to the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled by the January 2011 revolution after 3 decades in power, or those accused of financial and corruption cases.

The report spoke of many prisoners' families filing lawsuits to compel the Ministry of Interior to allow them to visit their imprisoned relatives, such as the family of lawyer Essam Sultan and the late President Mohamed Morsi, on the other hand, other prisoners such as former President Mubarak and his sons and some of his symbols, who were imprisoned for short periods, were They are visited either by their relatives or friends, and those accused of murder, such as Hisham Talaat Mustafa, have been released, or those accused of thuggery, such as Sabri Nakhnoukh.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Interior or state agencies did not recognize the existence of political prisoners in the first place, although many prisoners and detainees, some of them for years, were imprisoned simply because of a post on social media, an article, a peaceful demonstration, or a dialogue with a satellite channel.

The report accused the Egyptian authorities of exploiting the Corona pandemic to "commit more repression and violations, which in turn led to more congestion within the Egyptian society of the families of detainees and those concerned with freedoms and detainees themselves, which led to an increase in rivalry between the authorities and those concerned with freedoms and the rule of law."

He pointed out that the Ministry of Interior seeks to obscure the repression and try to conceal it and beautify its image, using complicit human rights institutions, such as the National Council for Human Rights (governmental), and that the authority employs most of the media, which have come under its control to present a false image of the poor conditions of prisoners.

The number of prisons in Egypt according to the Arab Network for Human Rights Information.