A prisoner named Mohamed Al-Shohna, 55, died Wednesday in Mansoura General Hospital after being transferred there from Mansoura General Prison where he was serving a two-year sentence.
Al-Shohna’s cousin, Mohamed, told Daily News Egypt that Al-Shohna was arrested on 25 January 2015 on charges of resisting security forces and demonstration of force. He was sentenced to two years by the Mansoura Military Court.
Mohamed added that in May, when the court was reviewing the case for appeal of the sentence, Al-Shohna suffered “epileptic seizures” in front of the judge and was transferred to Abbasiya Psychiatric Hospital in Cairo for 40 days.
On the first day of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, Mohamed said Al-Shohna suffered from a stroke. “The administration of the prison only agreed to transfer him to the hospital after his colleagues in prison decided to go on strike,” he added.
Al-Shohna, the father of five daughters and one son, was imprisoned with another 11 citizens from the village of Al-Shaboul, located in Daqahleya.
On Wednesday the military court continued its sessions of appeal against the original verdict.
Mohamed said that Al-Shohna was not politically active and is illiterate, and originally suffered from Cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver does not properly function due to extensive damage caused by disease.
There has been an increase in the number of deaths in detention recently, which some critics have tied to poor conditions inside prisons.
