Egypt lawmaker proposes hard labour for prisoners to get out of jail

An Egyptian lawmaker has put forward a proposal for a law to give prisoners the option to perform unpaid manual labour instead of serving jail time.

Alaa Abbas, the head of parliament's human rights council, presented the daft bill to lawmakers on Monday, local media reported.

Abbas said the law would allow prisoners to skip jail terms by "working on national projects without payment for a period equal to the duration of the sentence".

The law would require prisoners taking part in the alternative punishment scheme to check in at police stations and have their movement restricted.

It also proposes house arrest and compensation as other forms of punishment.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, jailing tens of thousands of Islamists and secular, pro-democracy advocates and rolling back freedoms won in a popular 2011 uprising.

Despite this, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Egypt's president Sisi for sustaining "freedoms" in the country, leading to a backlash from human rights campaigners.