The Egyptian Parliament Tackles Torture Issues

During this week, the parliamentary Committee of Defense and National Security discusses questions and requests for information, submitted by the Muslim Brotherhood’s MPs, relating to torture instances in prisons, death of political detainees, and the deteriorating conditions of jails.
 
The latest account, tabled by Hamdy Hassen to both ministers of Justice and Interior concerning the mysterious death of 19 detainees, revealed that medical reports said deaths resulted from intentional suffocation, according to press reports. In addition, 29 prisoners of fatal diseases are endangered because of negligence and lack of medical care. Some captures got unremembered due to their long-standing detention. Furthermore, there is discrimination among prisoners on the base of their ideological stands.
 
Hassen requested meticulous accounts about the real number of nationwide detainees, about their states, including statistics of the dangerous or contagious diseases. He also wondered when detention question will come to an end.
 
Responding to another question, lodged by Hassen Hamdy, the Justice Minister, Mahmud Abu el-Lal, uncovered that the toll of nationwide reports of torture instances, during the previous years, mounts only to 20 cases.
 
The minister said prosecutions conducted immediate probes into the reported torture occurrences. So far, fifteen of torture cases were decided while the remaining five are still pending some necessary procedures such as medical reports.