Detainee Abdullah Abdel Monem, 58, died on Thursday in Alexandria’s Mina Al-Basal police station after suffering a “diabetic stroke”, according to a statement by the Ministry of Interior.
The ministry says that “once the deceased started fainting, an ambulance was called. A medical examination concluded that he suffered a diabetic strike, resulting in his death.” The statement cited the testimonies of two fellow inmates to prove that he was not assaulted or killed.
The statement mentioned that Abdel Monem was accused of bouncing checks in six cases.
A major point of criticism of the Ministry of Interior’s detention centres is their lack of medical facilities, while other critics cite “inhumane conditions” and prevention of medical care.
The prosecution is yet to release a report about the incident.
In January 2015, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report strongly criticising Egyptian authorities for failing to improve detention conditions or to independently investigate reported detainees’ deaths as a result of physical torture inside prisons.
Citing local Egyptian non-governmental organisations and media reports, HRW said that some detainees appear to have died after being tortured or physically abused, but “many appear to have died because they were held in severely overcrowded cells or did not receive adequate medical care for serious ailments.”
