Egypt is taking action to assess the situation in Cairo’s notorious Tora Maximum Security Prison, also known as Al-Aqrab (Scorpion) prison, and determine its suitability to host inmates.

Detained Nubian Activist Gamal Sorour died on Saturday after being transferred to Aswan University hospital following a diabetic coma, sources told local media.

At least 223 Egyptian detainees declared a hunger strike protesting prolonged pretrial detention and maltreatment throughout the last month. One detainee, identified as Gamal Sorour, died on Saturday after being taken to the Aswan University Hospital hours after falling into a diabetic coma, according to lawyer Ahmed Rizk.

A militant group called Jamaat Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility on Friday for the Wahat Road attack that took place 135 km outside of Giza on October 20 and resulted in the deaths of 16 police officers and personnel.

Egypt’s Detained Youth Committee for Presidential Pardon will issue the latest list of inmates to receive pardons after the World Youth Forum, which kicks off in Sharm el-Sheikh on Nov. 4. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and relevant ministers are scheduled to make appearances at the six-day event.

Some 80 per cent of prisoners held in Egypt’s Al-Aqrab prison began a hunger strike in September to protest human rights violations against them, a rights group has said.

“There was about 10 or 12 of them…young kids between 20 and 21…they attacked over 70 of us with our new guns and new armoured vehicles,” said an injured officer to a medic in a six-minute leaked audio describing the attack on security forces in the Western Desert, on 21 October.

The fight against one of Egypt’s most notorious prisons, where numerous political prisoners are held, has moved forward one small step.

Police forces arrested on Monday a leader from Al-Jama’a Al-Islamiyya as he is accused of participating in violence related events. Abdel Qader Abdel Gawad was sentenced to life in absentia, on charges of participating in violence that erupted in the city of Beni Suef after the dispersal of the Rabaa …

The Coptic Archbishopric of Upper Egypt’s governorate of Minya released a statement on Sunday in which it said that four churches were closed during October and expressed condemnation towards the government for total inattention.