Egyptian youth Hossam Abu Al-Abbas Mostafa Morsi (26 years old) died inside New Valley Prison after being subjected to brutal torture that lasted for hours. The incident once again highlights the grim reality of Egyptian prisons, where severe and systematic violations of detainees’ rights occur with no genuine accountability or independent oversight.
Available information indicates that his death occurred on August 17, 2024, just six days after his arrival at the prison. His cell was reportedly stormed by a group of security personnel and investigation officers armed with torture tools, including batons, wires, and electric stun guns.
Abu Al-Abbas was subjected to direct electric shocks and severe beatings all over his body, which critically deteriorated his health. No appropriate medical intervention was provided, and he succumbed to his injuries after days of suffering.
Witnesses report that the death occurred in the notoriously abusive “Ward 4,” the same section where another detainee, former officer Tarek Abu Al-Azm, died under similar circumstances just a month and a half earlier.
Hossam Abu Al-Abbas had been subjected to enforced disappearance for six weeks before appearing before the prosecution, which ordered his pretrial detention without clear charges or sufficient legal safeguards. He had previously spent a year in prison merely for having religious content on his phone — making him yet another example of a citizen torn from normal life simply due to suspected thoughts or interests.
His transfer between detention centers, holding him in facilities lacking even basic healthcare, and placing him in an environment notorious for psychologically and physically breaking detainees, reflects a deliberate policy aimed at crushing detainees’ dignity. Testimonies also point to efforts to tamper with evidence — including threats to fellow inmates to force them to alter their statements — suggesting security agencies were complicit in covering up the crime and obstructing justice.
This case is part of a broader pattern of violations inside Egypt’s detention centers, where torture is not an exception but a routine practice, medical neglect is another form of slow execution, and investigations are often mere formalities that lead to the exoneration of perpetrators or the shelving of cases altogether.
The killing of Hossam Abu Al-Abbas reinforces the grim reality that detention centers in Egypt have transformed from legal institutions into arenas for violating human dignity. Justice in such contexts cannot be assumed; it requires independent accountability, genuine safeguards to protect detainees’ lives, and an immediate end to the policy of death behind bars—whether through direct violence or deliberate neglect.
Unless a serious and independent investigation is launched into such crimes, and those responsible at all levels are held accountable, the lives of thousands of detainees in Egypt will remain at constant risk.
