Hours after the United Nations decided to postpone a planned anti-torture conference in Cairo, over 80 prominent human rights workers, lawyers, journalists, activists and public figures in Egypt called on the UN to “explicitly cancel or reallocate the event to another country with the minimum respect for human rights,” in …

The United Nations has decided to postpone a regional conference on torture that was due to be held in Egypt in September, following an outcry by human rights organisations, a UN spokesperson told Middle East Eye on Tuesday.

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.

The United Nations is set to hold a conference on torture in Egypt, where authorities are accused of rampant human rights abuses.

Abdulmalik Abdulaziz, an Uighur student, was arrested and handcuffed by Egyptian police and when they removed his blindfold he was surprised to see Chinese officials questioning him in custody.

Twetnty-two deaths resulted from medical neglect in Egyptian prisons since the beginning of this year until the end of July, according to a report from the Adalah Centre for Rights and Freedoms. 

Seven years after it helped launch the uprisings that led to the downfall of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, Facebook is shutting down Egyptian activism online, Middle East Eye can reveal.

About 130 inmates have been on hunger strike in an Egyptian prison for more than six weeks in protest at inhumane conditions and denial of family visits, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Deputy leader of Egypt’s Wasat Party has been imprisoned for six years in solitary confinement having been denied family visits for two years and meetings with his lawyer for three.

Over 500 political prisoners in the Scorpion wing of Egypt’s notorious Tora Prison have reached day 38 of their hunger strike, which they began in June to protest against the death of former President Mohamed Morsi.