Egypt: 20,000 detainees extend their hunger strike

Haitham Abu Khalil, an Egyptian human rights lawyer, said that 20,000 Egyptian political prisoners will extend their hunger strike which they started on Wednesday till Friday, in protest against mistreatment and torture inside prisons.

Khalil, a spokesperson for the “Egyptian Detainees of Freedom” movement, said that prisoners will extend their hunger strike to pressure authorities to stop torture in prisons and to release those unjustly detained.

He added that a number of lawyers formed an “operations room” to follow the developments of the strike.

Meanwhile, relatives of detainees staged protests in public squares across the country to express solidarity.