Egypt is holding political prisoners in "prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement" that amounts to "torture," an international rights group said Monday. Morsi himself has reportedly been held in solitary confinement for most of the last five years. It said the prisoners in solitary confinement remain in their cells for 22 hours a day. The prolonged solitary confinement is usually aimed at extracting confessions and punishing prisoners for protesting ill-treatment, but some are held in solitary confinement purely because of their past political activism, Amnesty said. Later on Monday, Amnesty said that Egypt responded to its report with a 14-page statement, denying that the use of prolonged, solitary confinement is wide-spread.

Source: ABC News May 06, 2018 23:03 UTC