Amnesty International released a scathing report Monday marking the 10th anniversary of the start of Egypt’s 2011 uprising. In the report, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) denounced the inhumane conditions in Egyptian prisons and accused the country's authorities of subjecting prisoners and others held for political reasons to torture, forcing them to live in cruel conditions and deliberately denying medical assistance as a form of punishment.

The human rights group underlined that the heartlessness of prison authorities has contributed to the death of prisoners and has caused irreparable damage to the health of others.

The organization launched probes into 12 deaths in Egyptian prisons and is aware of 37 other cases in 2020. Egyptian human rights groups have estimated that hundreds of people have died in custody since 2013, the year when Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the coup that overthrew Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi.

Thousands are still being held in often inhumane conditions in the country's overcrowded prisons for months to years, according to a report published by the organization. The report denounced the treatment of the prisoners, noting that inmates are fed unhealthy food and are kept in the dark in poorly ventilated, unsanitary cells with limited access to water and toilets. Inadequate health care contributes to the unnecessary suffering of prisoners and deaths in some cases, Amnesty alleges.

"Prison officials show utter disregard for the lives and wellbeing of prisoners crammed into the country’s overcrowded prisons and largely ignore their health needs. They leave it to the prisoners' families to provide them with medication, food and cash to buy basics like soap and inflict additional suffering by denying them adequate medical treatment or timely transfer to hospitals," said Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director Philip Luther. "It is deplorable that the Egyptian authorities are seeking to intimidate and torment human rights defenders, politicians, activists and other actual or perceived opponents by denying them health care."

Luther asserted that "when the denial causes severe pain or suffering and is a deliberate act for the purpose of punishment, it constitutes torture." The report notes that prisoners' contact with relatives is extremely limited or completely denied, adding that there is also no uniform strategy in place to protect those in jail from the coronavirus.

In its report, Amnesty International documented the detention experiences of 67 individuals, 10 of whom had died in custody and two shortly after their release in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Carried out primarily between February 2020 and November 2020, the research focused on 16 prisons.

"It is shocking that all 67 individuals, whose cases are documented in this report, were denied adequate health care in prison or transfer to hospitals with specialist capacity, at least once during their detention, thereby causing a significant deterioration in their health," Luther said. "This gross dereliction of duty by the prison authorities is carried out with the knowledge and sometimes complicity of prosecutors in the absence of any independent oversight."

Prison hospitals are unsanitary and lack both equipment and qualified medical personnel, with prison doctors only providing painkillers and in some instances verbally abusing prisoners, calling them terrorists. Two women who spent time in Egyptian prison said they had been sexually assaulted and harassed by prison medical staff.

Amnesty has evidence of prison authorities "targeting prisoners critical of the government and denying them adequate food or family visits," the secretary-general of Amnesty International in Germany, Markus Beeko, asserted.

The U.N. estimates that 114,000 people are in prison in Egypt. The government has rejected reports of torture and inhospitable living conditions, which the state news site Al-Ahram referred to as "negative rumors."

Last week, the Interior Ministry released a video of Cairo's notorious Torah prison featuring inmates receiving high standard medical treatment, reading, painting and baking.

Luther urged Egyptian authorities to allow independent experts "unfettered access to prisons and work with them on addressing the abysmal conditions of detention and access to healthcare in prisons, before more lives are tragically lost."

"With the stakes so high and the prevailing climate of impunity in Egypt, it is essential for the international community to respond with purpose and urgency, including through the UN Human Rights Council establishing a monitoring mechanism on Egypt," Luther said.