Egypt: Over a dozen die in deteriorating prison conditions
At least a dozen detainees have died in Egyptian prisons since the beginning of 2025 as rights groups criticize deteriorating conditions.
According to Middle East Eye on April 22nd, 13 people have died in prison due to medical negligence, ill treatment and suicide, with most of them being held at the infamous Badr 3 prison near Cairo, notorious for its prisoner abuses.
Many rights groups have commented that since the rise of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in 2014, prisoner abuses have surged in Egyptian prisons, particularly with the influx of political prisoners.
The prison population is estimated to have swelled to around 120,000 as of 2022 despite the prison system’s capacity being at only 50,000 in 2020.
According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), “medical negligence” is cited as a common cause of death amongst detainees. The group also notes that 86 percent of the detainees were political prisoners.
Maghrebi recently reported on the forced disappearances and arrests of political activists, like that of Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah in March after an MP called for an enquiry into his detention.
Abdel-Fattah was imprisoned for five five years in 2021, for “spreading false news” and was a key figure in the 2011 uprising which deposed the then-President Hosni Mubarak.
The Badr prison complex, the site of most detainee deaths this year, was opened in 2021 and displayed as evidence of Egyptian prison reform. Yet, it has seen waves of protest by detainees over living conditions, abuses and torture.
Rights groups have detailed abuses such as visitation bans, 24-hour exposure to fluorescent lights, medical negligence and torture, including by electrocution and being chained to walls.
Indeed, Maghrebi also reported on the death of 65-year old Nabil Farfour, an Egyptian political prisoner, who died due to alleged medical negligence on March 2nd, 2025.
Whilst the West claims to be the worldly defender of human rights, criticism towards human rights abuses in Egypt have been particularly scarce in recent months as Egypt becomes an evermore prominent player in the Middle East.
In fact the EU has just agreed upon a $8 billion package of loans, grants and energy cooperation deals which aim to sustain the crumbling Egyptian economy and prevent the flow of migrants from North Africa into Europe.
Europe considered Egypt’s socioeconomic resilience as pivotal to the security of Europe but the country’s economic condition has deteriorated with around 30 percent of the population in poverty, rising inflation and over nine million migrants and refugees from – primarily – Sudan and Syria.
The EU and Egypt have been quite vague on how the money will be distributed but it can be said that conditions in prisons certainly was not a condition of the loans and grants.
Thus, as Europe turns a blind eye to human rights abuses of an authoritarian regime in exchange for European and Middle Eastern security, the abuses endured by prisoners in Egyptian prisons will continue and probably deteriorate further.
Middle East Eye, Maghrebi
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