PRISON IN EGYPT

These stories are just some of thousands in Egypt.

Human rights groups estimate that over 60,000 detainees in Egypt are political prisoners. They include activists, journalists, lawyers, university professors, artists, doctors, members of the LGBTQ community and others. Thousands of them are being held in pretrial detention and are locked up for months or years without ever being convicted of a crime. The judiciary and prosecution have long forgone any semblance of due process and have acted in lockstep with the police to keep tens of thousands behind bars. 

Those who have gone to trial and completed their prison sentences are increasingly being subjected to draconian probationary measures upon their release, where they are required to turn themselves in to a police station every day for 12 hours, from sunset to sunrise.

At least 16 new prisons have been built in Egypt since the 2013 coup led by army general-turned president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. That figure does not include other places of detention, including police stations, military prisons and Central Security Forces camps.

Conditions inside Egyptian prisons are often characterized by overcrowding, a lack of proper sanitation, medical negligence and little communication with the outside world. The situation has only deteriorated amid the coronavirus pandemic. Since March, the Ministry of Interior has banned all prison visits and thousands of detainees have little to no communication with their families. Human rights groups have documented multiple cases of COVID-19 inside Egyptian prisons as well as several deaths.

Alaa writes in detail about prison throughout You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, including a major fourteen-part essay that drives deep into the psycho-governmental purpose of prison for the state.

In 2021 it was announced that Egypt would soon unveil a new prison based on “the American Model.”