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762 detainees died in Egypt prisons since coup

May 25, 2019 at 9:46 am

A file photo dated July 31, 2013 shows a protester supporting holding a banner reading ‘Against Military Coup’ in Rabia Adaweya Square in Cairo, Egypt [Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu Agency]

Some 762 detainees have died in Egyptian jails since the July 2013 coup, a UK-based human rights group reported yesterday, adding that 551 of them had died as a result of medical negligence.

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK declared that “Egyptian prisons have turned into execution compounds taking the lives of their detainees by denying them the right to the medical care they need and providing a fertile environment for diseases and epidemics to spread inside the detention centres due to the lack of hygiene, pollution and overcrowding.”

It added that 762 people have died or been killed while being held in detention centres due to medical negligence, poor detention conditions, administrative corruption and torture. Since the July 2013 coup which ousted the country’s first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, 551 detainees have died of medical negligence while in detention, it revealed.

“20 cases of deaths among detainees have been registered during 2019, including 15 detainees charged with opposing the regime. The rest are accused of committing crimes. Seven people died in January, two in February, five in March, four in April, and two in May,” the organisation said.

“Psychological pressure is exerted on detainees,” the rights group explained, “especially the ones charged with opposing the authorities.”

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