Human rights organisation: Anti-coup activist died in Egyptian jail due to ‘medical negligence’

An Egyptian anti-coup activist died in prison yesterday as a result of “medical negligence”, his lawyer and a human rights organisation said.

In a statement, the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms said 35-year-old Maged Al-Hanafi’s health deteriorated while he was being held. He has multiple tumours and had had surgery to remove his colon however prison authorities refused to return him to hospital after the operation.

The group said Al-Hanafi was from the Suez governorate, in Egypt’s north east, and was arrested on 11 December 2013 at an oil company where he worked. On 15 February 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Al-Hanafi’s lawyer Ezzat Ghoneim described him as an “Islamist opponent” who did not belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“He had cancer and we recently filed a request to transfer him to a hospital outside prison for better treatment, with his deteriorating health condition, but the prison’s administration refused and insisted he remained in the prison’s hospital,” the lawyer added.

“Al-Hanafi was accused in a case relating to protests although at the time he was on a work-related mission. We await his wife’s arrival to receive his corpse from the Zeinhom morgue in preparation for his burial in his hometown, Suez.”