‘I feel like I’ve been forgotten in the prison’

Shouting to make himself heard from the soundproof glass dock during a break in his trial, Egyptian photographer Mahmoud Abdel Shakour said he feels he has been "forgotten" in prison.
Three years ago, Abdel Shakour -- known as Shawkan -- had been covering the police dispersal of an Islamist protest camp in Cairo when he was arrested, and he has been in jail ever since.
August 14 2013 was the bloodiest day in Egypt's modern history, and one of the deadliest in the region since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Hundreds of Islamists supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi, toppled by the military in July that year, were mowed down by police in clashes. About 10 policemen were killed.
Three years later, thousands of Islamists remain in prison after a wide-ranging crackdown that has extended to leftists and even journalists like Shawkan.
Shawkan had been photographing the carnage that day for the Demotix photo agency when he was arrested. Three journalists were shot dead in the violence.
The photographer spent months in pre-trial detention before he was put on trial along with hundreds of other defendants over the protest
"I feel like I've been forgotten in prison," Shawkan, 29, told an AFP reporter during a break at a recent court session, yelling through the glass barrier to make himself heard
"I feel despair, and powerless. Time is flying by while I'm in jail.
He is imprisoned in a poorly ventilated cell which becomes scorching hot in summer.
"My hope diminishes every day," he said, adding that he missed being able to look at the sky.
Sitting on his bed back home, next to a framed picture of her son, Shawkan's mother Reda Mahrous said she has trouble getting to sleep.
"I feel oppression and injustice," she said, wearing a green bracelet that her son made her in prison. "Every day I make his bed, and wait for a knock on the door to see him before me. But it never happens."

• MENA