Rights group: Egypt uses solitary confinement as 'torture'

CAIRO – Egypt is holding political prisoners in "prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement" that amounts to "torture," an international rights group said Monday.

In a new report, Amnesty International said dozens of detained human rights activists, journalists and members of the opposition held in solitary confinement face "horrendous physical abuse." Such treatment results in "panic attacks, paranoia, hypersensitivity to stimuli, and difficulties with concentration and memory," it said.

Egypt has detained thousands of people, mainly Islamists but also several prominent secular activists, since the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013. Morsi himself has reportedly been held in solitary confinement for most of the last five years.