Egyptian authorities revealed the circumstances surrounding the photos and videos circulating about a mass escape of more than a hundred residents from an addiction treatment center in the Badrasheen area of Giza Governorate, after allegations of mistreatment.
The Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced that investigations showed that the center was unlicensed and had previously been closed on October 14, 2025, due to its violation of the conditions regulating the work of addiction treatment centers. However, its owner, in cooperation with a number of supervisors working in it, re-operated it during last November without obtaining any official licenses, with the aim of achieving illegal financial profits.
The investigations explained that the security services were able to identify and arrest the owner of the center and two of the supervisors who were found to have criminal records, as they confessed during the investigations to reopening the center despite the issuance of a previous decision to close it, knowing that their actions were illegal. Accordingly, the Public Prosecution ordered the imprisonment of three defendants from the center’s officials for four days pending investigation.
The Ministry of Health, in turn, confirmed that the facility is unlicensed and practices an illegal activity that is considered a falsification of the status of a medical institution, in a clear violation of the Law on Non-Governmental Medical Institutions and the Mental Health Law. The ministry announced the closure of the center with red wax, as the inspection committees of the Central Administration of Non-Governmental Medical Institutions, in coordination with the security services, implemented the closure decision, stressing that the seals should not be removed except after referring to the Free Treatment Department of the Giza Health Affairs Directorate and the competent prosecution, to avoid legal accountability.
The Ministry of Health also referred the case to the Public Prosecution to investigate all allegations related to the management of an unlicensed facility, and what was reported about patients being subjected to violations inside it.
In a related context, an investigation published by the “Al-Masry Al-Youm” website revealed that the area of the center does not exceed two carats, and includes small rooms crowded with residents, where each resident is registered under a pseudonym in old notebooks bearing names such as “Ezbet,” “Hetta,” “Al-Wonsh,” “Farkha,” and “Shosho,” making it difficult to identify those who call themselves “specialists” or “therapists.”
The investigation stated that the daily accommodation cost ranges between 200 and 500 pounds, and includes simple meals limited to cheese, pasta, and carbohydrates without meat or fish, in addition to the lack of suitable toilets.
According to testimonies from workers in unlicensed sanatoriums in the area, the mass escape occurred as a result of losing control of a large number of residents at one time, as their number exceeded one hundred people, which made the place management unable to control the situation.
For their part, farmers living near the center described the scene as shocking and unusual, stressing that they heard screams and escapes, but they were unable to intervene for fear of their land and farms.
