海角大神

Ahmed Ibrahim鈥檚 last words to his family crackled down the phone line at听1 a.m. on June 15.听鈥淚鈥檓 dying, father,鈥� he said.听

His body was found in a Cairo morgue the next day. According to a medical report, Mr. Ibrahim鈥檚 body was covered in cuts and bruises when it reached the hospital. 鈥淭hey hurt him, and then threw him out like garbage,鈥� says Mohamed Ibrahim, his father, tracing a finger along the hurried script on his son鈥檚 medical certificate. His son had been in police custody.

With little public outcry, more than 80听people have died in custody over the past year, according to independent monitor Wikithawra.听In June 2010, photos of the shattered face of Khaled Said, a young man killed in police custody, laid the groundwork for听mass protests听in Egypt against听longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak. His downfall in February 2011 was a landmark in the so-called Arab Spring, which still has aftershocks roiling the region.听

Last July,听Egypt's military ousted the country's first elected president, Mohamed Morsi, and launched an听aggressive crackdown against dissidents. Egypt's police are back to the听most brutal practices of the Mubarak era, and deaths in custody have surged once again.听But this time popular anger is muted, as many swing behind a repressive security state as a bulwark against the chaos and sectarianism that came in Mubarak's wake, particularly after police retreated from the streets.听

Rights groups fear that many more people will die in custody. They point to a deep-rooted culture of prisoner abuse and neglect that was barely touched by the reforms enacted under Mubarak's successors.

Ahmed was one of at least four men to die inside east Cairo鈥檚 Matareya police station in three months. Neighborhood residents say they know of more deaths, but that other听families choose听to bury the bodies without a fuss, wary of听provoking听Egypt's interior ministry.

Inside detention facilities, torture, once again commonplace,听is now听accompanied by extraordinary overcrowding and routine denial of medical care. An estimated 41,000 people have been arrested since July 3, 2013, the day Morsi was ousted. Most detainees are held inside听police stations, riot police barracks, and formal prisons. Up to 400 people are also being held inside听an army base听in the city of Ismailia.听

Dangerous overcrowding

Over a dozen former听prisoners speaking to 海角大神 described the impact that squalid听prison听conditions and poor ventilation had on inmates鈥� health. Karim Taha, a young revolutionary activist, was held in four detention facilities during his six-month incarceration. He recalls dangerous levels of overcrowding in every cell.

鈥淲hen we entered, we would quickly realize that they had no room for us anymore. We had to sleep in shifts and hang all our belongings on the wall,鈥� Mr. Taha says.

Inside one of Taha鈥檚 cells in a Cairo central security forces camp, he counted 74 people. In cells intended for one person, there were as many as 10. Cellphone photographs from one prison in Cairo听show at least 43 inmates sleeping within a single cell. There is not a hand鈥檚 width between them.

Three detainees from the same cell say they had been held there for 14 days without the legally required exercise period.

鈥淭he air was still,鈥� says Taha. 鈥淭here was a hole on the door of the cell 鈥� we used to take it in turns to sit next to the vent in order to breathe the fresh oxygen. People fainted often.鈥�

During this two-week period, one of their cellmates suffered a heart attack.听They knocked听on the cell door for four hours before a guard answered their call. The man would later die when riot police quashed a听prisoners鈥� demonstration with high pressure water hoses.

All the former prisoners describe a routine lack of medical care. One showed a photo of an old man slumped against a wall, his white robe stained with blood he had vomited, due to a pre-existing health condition.听Two others recalled how an imprisoned Syrian doctor removed shrapnel from an inmate's leg, using plastic spoons and Dettol.听

'Rampant' torture

Torture,听a staple of Egyptian detention, continues unabated.

Amnesty International has described the practice as "rampant," and its researchers report an upsurge since April for reasons that remain unclear. Methods include electrocution and hanging. Former detainees from police stations and听prisons听across Egypt say heavy beatings and sexual abuse are commonplace.

In May, middle-aged Ezzat Abdel-Fattah died inside the Matareya police station. A forensic report released听last week听revealed the tax collector had sustained nine broken ribs, gashes, hemorrhaging, and a concussion, among other injuries, before his death.

A family friend learned of his death after hearing that he had been transferred to a local hospital.听She found his body there.听鈥淭hey tortured him for three days inside that station, and at the end, they didn鈥檛 even tell me he was dead,鈥� says his son, Ahmed.

Emam Fouad, an activist in the听April 6th听Youth Movement, recalls one incident at the Wadi Natroun听prison听in May when dozens of听prisoners were stripped naked and beaten, then forced to sing nationalist songs. He says听he watched as听several detainees were subjected to forced anal examinations in front of the rest of the听prisoners.

Video footage from inside Egypt鈥檚听prison听walls show a detainee being tortured until he falls still. The guards panic. In another clip, apparently shot on a cellphone through the window of a cell door, a听second听man can be seen lying prone on the stone floor of a dark corridor. 鈥淭he guy is dying,鈥� shouts a voice in the background. There is no immediate police response.听

Impunity for cops

Rights groups say the deaths will continue as long as Egypt鈥檚 security forces are able to operate with impunity. The only police officer jailed for his part in the deaths of protesters since the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi last summer had his conviction quashed on appeal.

鈥淭he rise in deaths in custody takes us back to the darkest hours of Mubarak rule,鈥� says Mohamed Elmessiry, Amnesty International鈥檚 Egypt researcher. 鈥淭his will continue as long as police officers are not held responsible for these deaths.鈥�

Egypt鈥檚 interior ministry could not be reached for comment. In an interview on July 2, a senior ministry official, Maj. Gen. Abdelfattah Othman, denied that torture was taking place. He said Egypt鈥檚听prisons听were 鈥渓ike hotels."

Mohammed Ezz contributed reporting.