Second detainee death in Egypt police custody recorded within 24 hours
A 25-year-old has become the second detainee to die in Egyptian police custody within 24 hours, a rights group said Tuesday.
The Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) said that Karim Mohamed Abdo Badr died inside a detention facility at al-Saff Police Station in Giza governorate on Sunday.
The group reported that security forces had arrested Badr and his brother for allegedly attempting to steal a tuk-tuk, but said they are working to determine the circumstances and causes of his death, as no further information has been provided by the authorities.
A former detainee described detention conditions at the police station as “inhumane”.
“People are dying in there from the overcrowding, too many individuals in a small space, with no basic human care. The smell is unbearable, and contagious skin diseases are spreading due to poor hygiene and extreme heat,” he said.
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The ENHR suggested that these conditions “may have directly or indirectly contributed” to Badr’s death.
It added that Badr was buried yesterday in the family cemetery in the Saff area.
The ENHR also noted that Badr came from a low-income background, and was trying to support his family by selling scouring pads.
The group called for a transparent investigation into the circumstances of Badr’s death, as well as the detention conditions at the facility, and urged the authorities to “hold accountable anyone found responsible for negligence or violations of detainees’ rights”.
Deaths from torture
Badr’s death came hours after the ENHR reported that a 21-year-old university student was tortured to death inside another police station, in the Dakhalia governorate, northeast of Cairo, sparking riots.
According to the ENHR, Ayman Sabry Abdel Wahab died on Friday while in custody at the Belqas Police Station, following “a week of deadly torture”.
The police claimed that Abdel Wahab had suffered a cardiac arrest. But his sister said that, when her family went to identify his body at the hospital, it bore the signs of beatings and electric shocks.
The deaths come as rights groups warn of a surge in detainee deaths across Egyptian prisons and police stations amid rapidly deteriorating conditions and spiralling abuses.
In May, Egyptian rights monitor the Committee for Justice (CFJ) reported that so far in 2025, 15 prisoners had died in Egyptian custody, the majority of them due to medical negligence.
In July, 15 prisoners reportedly attempted suicide at Egypt’s notorious Badr 3 prison within just two weeks.
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