An independent Egyptian campaign is calling for the release of more than 1,000 imprisoned doctors and health-care professionals to help in the country’s fight against the spread of the coronavirus.

The host of a popular YouTube show says Egyptian security forces have arrested two of his brothers days after he aired a video allegedly showing an Egyptian military officer mutilating and burning a civilian in Sinai.

An Egyptian activist has been detained for 15 days after posting a video purportedly showing an Egyptian military officer mutilating and torching the body of a civilian in Sinai, her family members and lawyers tell Middle East Eye.

Egyptian police, National Security Agency, and military officials arbitrarily arrested, forcibly disappeared, and tortured children as young as 12 while prosecutors and judges turned a blind eye, Human Rights Watch and the rights group Belady: An Island For Humanity said in a report released today.

Egyptian authorities released a prominent political activist on Friday amid widespread calls for Cairo to let thousands of others go free to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading among the prison population.

Rights groups in Cairo are calling on the Egyptian government to immediately release prisoners for fear that an outbreak of COVID-19 could threaten the lives of thousands imprisoned in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities will release four women activists on bail after they were arrested Wednesday for staging a small-scale protest in the capital calling for the release of prisoners before the novel coronavirus spreads to detention facilities.

A coalition of rights groups, activists, politicians and members of civil society are calling on the United Nations to ask Egypt to release its political prisoners amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Egypt has been “abusing” pre-trial detention to eliminate human rights defenders from society by bringing “terrorism” charges against activists, lawyers, journalists and critics of the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a report said.

Four human rights groups yesterday calling on Egypt to release prisoners and take needed measures in order to avoid the spread of the coronavirus in prisons, Arabi21 reported.