Egypt: Over 2,700 human rights violations committed in 1 year

In its latest quarterly report for October, November and December 2023, the El-Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture recorded 446 cases of human rights violations against prisoners and civilians in Egypt, including murder, torture and forced disappearance.

The Centre documented in detail one case of extrajudicial killing in October, nine deaths inside detention facilities and prisons, six cases in October, three cases in November and nine cases of torture, seven cases in October and one case in November and December. It also recorded 35 cases of harassment: four in October, five in November, 26 in December and one case of collective harassment in October.

According to the same source, 35 cases of recycling defendants in new cases were recorded, 18 in October, five in November and 12 in December, in addition to 46 cases of intentional medical negligence in various prisons and detention centres, with 14 in October, 17 in November and 15 in December.

It also documented 99 cases of forced disappearance, the appearance of 148 citizens after varying periods of disappearance and 63 cases of state violence.

The forms of torture that the Centre monitors in its reports, whether individual or collective, in prisons and various detention centres, range between: “Beatings, transfers to solitary confinement cells by force, dragging, electrocution in various sensitive places on the body, tying hands back and hanging prisoners from their legs, throwing faeces in their faces and blindfolding.”

Among the forms of individual or collective harassment in prisons and various detention centres are: “Deprivation of appointments, deprivation of prison food, cutting off water for days, preventing visits for years, reducing visitation times and reducing food and supplies brought during visitation to a bare minimum, preventing the entry of medicine and clothing, stripping the cells, shaving prisoners’ hair by force, group beatings, preventing exercise and leaving cells and imprisoning large numbers in overcrowded cells.”

This brings the number of cases of human rights violations monitored by the Centre since the beginning of the year to 2,742. In descending order, the Centre documented in its quarterly report for 2023 924 different violations in July, August and September, including 13 deaths in prisons and various detention centres, with four deaths in prisons in July, three in August and six in September, two cases of extrajudicial killing, one in July, one in August and 16 cases of torture, including 12 cases in September, three in August and one in July.

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