Calls for Egypt to build more prisons

Head of the Human Rights Committee in the Egyptian Parliament Alaa Abed called for expanding prisons and detention rooms, the New Khaleej reported on Friday.

During a TV Show, he said: “We visited some of the detention departments in the popular areas. There are six or seven detention rooms in every detention department. The number should be increased because the population has increased and crime developed.”

Abed, who was a police officer and has been accused of torture, stressed on the importance of financial support for detention centres. “Each department is enough only for one street and we need to expand the departments,” he said. “This needs a budget.”

Read: Ibrahim Halawa released from jail in Egypt

In October 2016, Abed was elected head of the Human Rights Committee after seven nominees had withdrawn in protest of corruption.

There are more than 504 detention centres in Egypt in addition to lock ups in police stations and intelligence agency offices. There are also illegal detention areas in security bases and military bases run by the army.

Since the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, in a military coup in 2013, Egypt has launched a crackdown on anyone suspected of opposing Al-Sisi or his policies and has implemented laws that affect vocal media organisations, journalists and NGOs.

Critics of the proposed amendments believe they will be used to further attack now outlawed peaceful opposition groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi was a member, in an effort to ensure Al-Sisi’s survival as president.