Egypt built 13 new prisons to house 60,000 political prisoners

Egypt has built 13 new prisons since the 2013 coup with a further three under construction, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has said.

There are now 504 jails and police stations where prisoners are housed in the country.

The prisons have been built to deal with the rising number of Egyptians that have been put behind bars since 3 July 2013. Many have been forcibly disappeared and are subject to torture, the denial of medical care, sexual abuse, unfair trials and the death penalty.

The ANHRI reported that there are currently around 106,000 prisoners in Egypt, 60,000 of whom are political prisoners.

The government has attempted to improve Egypt’s ailing economy by cutting subsidies and raising taxes, a measure that has hit the poorest Egyptians the hardest. Despite this, the Interior Ministry’s budget has been expanded to nine billion Egyptian pounds ($1.01 billion) to oversee the expansion of these detention centres.