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.

At least six political detainees, who were held for years in detention without trial or investigation, were released on Sunday by order of the State Security Prosecution, lawyers told Mada Masr.

The Egyptian parliament announced Oct. 4 the formation of the National Council for Human Rights headed by Ambassador Moushira Khattab, according to Law No. 97 of 2017. The new council is expected to start working once Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approves its new formation to the council.

Egypt’s interior ministry has organised a tour of its most infamous prison, just days after a panel of United Nations experts warned that thousands of prisoners were at risk of dying in Egyptian jails.

Egypt is “fully prepared” to face all the accusations it expects will be brought against it at the Universal Periodic Review session scheduled to be held at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, according to a government official in Cairo.

President of the National Council for Human Rights Mohamed Fayek announced on Tuesday that Egypt officially took over the presidency of the African Network of National Human Rights Institutions.

Media organizations received instructions from security agencies to attack the National Council for Human Rights and its head, following a statement it published criticizing recent police violations, media sources told Mada Masr.

Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) on Wednesday said it was shocked that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has postponed the anti-torture conference in Cairo scheduled for September following rights groups’ backlash against Egypt’s human rights record.

Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council Maha Azzam has written to the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet Jeria urging her to publicly condemn the regional conference on torture which will be held in Cairo at the beginning of September and will be co-hosted by the international body.