LONDON: A coroner s inquest was opened and adjourned in London Friday into the death of the billionaire son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Financier Ashraf Marwan, 63, who reportedly spied for Israel, is thought to have fallen from the balcony of his fifth-floor apartment in the West End district of the British capital Wednesday.
According to reports in Cairo, Marwan, who was alleged to have acted as a secret agent for Israel s Mossad intelligence agency during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, either committed suicide or was assassinated.
But opening the inquest into his death Friday, coroner Paul Knapman did not give the cause of death. Scotland Yard only described his death as “unexplained.
Instead, Knapman confined the proceedings – a legal requirement in England and Wales after a suspicious death – to identification of details.
Marwan s body was identified by one of his sons who lives in the Egyptian capital, the brief hearing was told.
Knapman adjourned proceedings until August 15.
Marwan was the husband of Nasser s eldest daughter, Mona. They had two sons, both businessmen.
