In a letter from prison, an Egyptian photojournalist who spent more than 600 days in detention without any charges said his prison is like a "cemetery" and that he left his "dignity" at its gates. Mahmoud Abou-Zeid, known by his nickname Shawkan, was arrested in August 2013 while taking photographs of the government's violent dispersal of a sit-in by supporters of ousted former President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi was Egypt's first democratically elected president who was overthrown and jailed after a bloody military coup headed by the incumbent President Abel Fattah el-Sissi. Over 600 people were killed in the dispersal. Shawkan's older brother, Mohammed, said Tuesday the letter was sent last weekend. He described his brother as a broken man who has no access to books, only eating and sleeping in a small cell that houses 12 other prisoners. "He is silent for most of the visits," said Mohammed, who alternates with family members to visit Shawkan every week. Asked why his brother is still detained without charges, Mohammed said: "I too would like to know the answer to this question." An Interior Ministry spokesman had no immediate comment on the case.

Thousands of Morsi supporters have been rounded up since, many facing trial on violence-related charges amid a wider crackdown on dissent. Egypt was rated among the 10 worst jailers of journalists in the world. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in December that at least 12 journalists, including three Al-Jazeera journalists are detained in Egypt. Australian Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has since been released, but the trial of his colleagues continues. The 27-year old Shawkan was rounded up outside the mosque where the sit-in was held. He was interrogated on suspicion of rioting, taking part in the violent protest and belonging to an Islamist group that authorities have since declared a terrorist organization. Shawkan said the accusations were "fabricated." Shawkan said he was only taking pictures of the dispersal, describing a scene that felt like a "war" with flying bullets and tear gas. "It was like a Hollywood movie," he said in a letter published by Amnesty International Sunday. Shawkan said despite identifying himself to authorities as a journalist, they still detained him. Two foreign journalists arrested with him were released two hours later. Shawkan said he was beaten by five officers at the same time, denied food and water for three days, and denied treatment for his injuries.

In the letter, Shawkan describes how heard the screams of dozens of other prisoners choking and suffocating in a notorious incident when police fired tear gas into a prison van packed with detainees. Shawkan was crammed in another prison van, one of several such vehicles parked outside a prison court in the sweltering summer sun for seven hours. "Many of us were lost, powerless to help. We laid down, unable to take a breath. I felt like I was dying as I listened to the prisoners around me praying and gasping for air," he wrote. Some 37 detainees died in the tear gas incident, and four police officers are standing trial for manslaughter. Shawkan was then transferred to another prison four months later. "Tora Prison is like a cemetery," he wrote, describing how he shares a 9x12 foot cell with 12 others, sleeping on the floor and sharing a tiny kitchen with a single electric hot plate they often use for heating. A squat-down drop toilet, "basically a hole in the concrete floor," is separated from the cooking area by only a blanket. "Our dignity was left at the prison gates," he wrote. "I am a photojournalist, not a criminal. My indefinite detention is psychologically unbearable. Not even animals would survive in these conditions."