Egyptian officials have tortured a 24-year-old prisoner to death, provoking accusations that the increasingly unpopular junta is failing to dismantle Hosni Mubarak‘s brutal security apparatus.

Essam Ali Atta, a civilian serving a two-year jail term in Cairo‘s high-security Tora prison following his conviction in a military tribunal earlier this year for an apparently „common crime“, was reportedly attacked by prison guards after trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his cell.