Egyptian prisoners appeal to world to stop their slow death

Prisoners held in Zagazig prison in Egypt appealed to human rights organisations and the free world to help relieve their distress.

The President of the Dahaya Centre for Human Rights in Egypt Haitham Abu Khalil published the appeal on Facebook saying: “The situation inside the prison is very difficult. Detainee numbers have increased in an unacceptable and inhumane manner. We are suffocating to death inside the cells.”

According to the appeal, there are at least 43 prisoners held inside the prison’s ​​four metre by six metre cell. “The prison’s medical observation unit, which contains elderly and chronically ill patients, holds 22 prisoners in a three metre by three metre room,” the appeal said.

The prisoners said: “We are dying slowly inside the prison’s overcrowded cells where we cannot breathe, especially now that that the high summer temperatures are approaching, or move.”