Shehab Centre for Human Rights said they have received several appeals from families of political detainees in Abu Zaabal Prison, where guests complain about the humiliation they are subjected to by the National Security officer, who always threatens to torture them to death.

The appeal read, “This is an urgent appeal from detainees in Liman Abu Zaabal Prison 2 after they were recurrently threatened by the National Security officer over the past few weeks. After the transfer of hundreds of political detainees from Tora Prison to Abu Zaabal, the security forces started a crackdown including recurrent campaigns to strip the prisoners of their belongings and inflict physical assaults and insults.” The families added that the prison’s administration refused to allow winter clothes and linen to enter, leaving the prisoners to lie directly on the floor.

Shehab Centre held the ministry of interior and the prisons authority responsible for the lives and safety of prisoners in all Egypt’s prisons and particularly in Abu Zaabal Prison and called upon the attorney general to urgently investigate the National Security officer of this prison. Abu Zaabal Prison has had a bad reputation since August 2013 when 38 detainees died from asphyxiation after they were locked inside in the height of summer without water.

The Egyptian Front for Human Rights warned of recurrent violations against prisoners in Abu Zaabal Prison, where maltreatment by the prison administration against prisoners has been repeatedly reported.