A Central Security Forces (CSF) conscript was reported dead in North Sinai on Thursday.
The Ministry of Interior said in a Friday statement that the conscript suffered sudden fatigue and collapsed during training. He died amid attempts to resuscitate him.
However, the Forensic Department’s spokesperson Hisham Abdel Hamid told privately-owned TV station Al-Tahrir on Friday that the soldier fainted and was suspected by a superior officer to be evading training. Abdel Hamid added: “That is when the officer assaulted the soldier with a stick.”
“The primary findings of the investigations showed marks of beatings by a stick on his body, showing evidence that he was assaulted”
Ongoing investigations are to determine whether the assault was the reason for the death, said Abdel Hamid.
Abdel Hamid commented on the Ministry of Interior’s statement saying that it is too early to conclude the reason of the death. “Within three weeks, the forensic department will produce a full report on the incident.”
The ministry’s media centre said that the suspected officer has been sent to prosecution, where he will held in preventative detention for four days awaiting further investigations.
Last month, police conscripts of the CSF went on strike in Ismailia, demanding better treatment and working conditions, staging a sit-in and blocking the Cairo-Ismailia road. The sit-in resulted in a confrontation between the soldiers and their officers, leaving two injured.
In 2012, CSF troops in Cairo’s Obour security camp refused to obey orders, blocked the road, and stormed the gate over the alleged murder of one of their colleagues by a superior officer.
In February of last year, 19 conscripts were killed and 120 injured in the Badrashein train crash. It was reported by state media that most of the victims were recruits from Upper Egypt on their way to training camps.
