Squalid place of lost hope housing rapists and jihadis
THE hellhole jail awaiting Laura houses some of Egypt’s most dangerous inmates.
Qena prison, in a town on the Nile about an hour’s drive north of Luxor, is where all hope is lost.
From jihadists to rapists and murderers, prisoners live in cramped, squalid conditions and are shackled to bare walls.
The small hot cells have no electricity or fans, and ruthless guards hand out regular punishments by locking inmates up in solitary confinement in darkness.
Dozens are on death row. Human rights groups say prisoners include Muslim Brotherhood leaders, kept alongside alleged members of Islamic State.
One inmate’s wife wrote the jail system is ”dehumanizing even for the visitor” and “Prison is absolute paralysis, complete isolation and utterly impoverishing”.