The family of the late economic researcher Ayman Hadhoud has filed a legal request for the release of surveillance footage from the final weeks in his life.

The US Senate’s longest serving member has rebuked Egyptian authorities for continuing to detain activist and blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, calling his treatment “reminiscent of the Middle Ages”.

Sister of leading pro-democracy British, Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah refuted late on Monday evening an official claim that her brother had not been on hunger strike at the notorious Tora maximum-security prison.

Chair of the National Human Rights Council Moushira Khattab requested on Tuesday evening that imprisoned activist Alaa Abd El Fattah be transferred to an alternative site of detention with superior health facilities.

For the first time, the newly formed National Council for Human Rights has spoken publicly on the status of imprisoned activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, who on Monday entered his 45th day on hunger strike in protest against harsh prison conditions and his deprivation of basic rights.

In the last four years, at least 1,764 prisoners were subject to “rotation,” a loophole commonly used by Egyptian authorities to circumvent the legal limits on the duration for which detainees may be held without trial, a new independent report revealed.

Rights groups have raised concerns about the whereabouts of a prominent Egyptian journalist after she was detained by security officials on Thursday.

A leading human rights advocacy group is urging Egyptian authorities to release the autopsy report and investigate the suspicious death of an economic researcher detained two months ago.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decision to pardon a number of prisoners ahead of the Islamic Eid Al-Fitr and Sinai Liberation Day, according to the official gazette.

Egypt’s interior ministry is currently building a new prison complex in Sinai, northeast of the country, enough to accommodate 20,000 inmates, according to a local media outlet.