Egypt Watch

Prominent Egyptian tutor and syndicate leader dies in detention

On Monday, Egyptian human rights activists announced the death of the former head of the Teachers’ Syndicate in Amiriya, Subhi el-Sakka. They revealed that he died as a result of medical negligence, in Burj al-Arab Prison in Alexandria Governorate.

The Egyptian authorities have not commented on the circumstances of el-Sakka’s death, which comes days after the death of the Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian in Scorpion Prison, south of Cairo. In Egypt, political detainees suffer from difficult conditions in prisons, most notably, the denial of medication and food and receiving necessary medical care.

There have been 68 deaths in Egyptian prisons during the first half of this year, according to the report issued by the Committee for Justice human rights organisation, “From negligence to calamity.”