Egypt: Images circulate showing signs of torture on Ayman Hadhoud’s body

New images appear to show signs of torture on the body of prominent Egyptian economist Ayman Hadhoud, including that his skull was fractured before he died.

The pictures were posted by Twitter account Tafnied who wrote in the post: “Experts confirmed that the photos are real, and a forensic doctor confirmed that Hadhoud had a skull fracture, a broken nose and wounds before his death.” The pictures of Hadhoud’s body are too graphic for MEMO to publish.

Amnesty International has previously said that marks on Hadhoud’s forearms and face indicate that he was injured repeatedly before he died.

Hadhoud, 48, was a founding member of the Reform and Development Party and one of their senior economic advisers. He was forcibly disappeared by Egyptian authorities earlier this year for two months before his death.

There have been widespread calls for a probe into how and why he died amid reports that he was tortured at the National Security Agency headquarters.

Hadhoud’s family were informed that he had been sent to Abbasiya Psychiatric Hospital from state security custody but were not allowed to visit until they were eventually asked to pick up his dead body.

Hadhoud died on 5 March, but the family were not told until 10 April, a month after he passed away.

READ: Egypt arrests journalist for criticising the entry of Israelis to Sinai

The Egyptian authorities are denying that Hadhoud was tortured to death and instead maintain that he died of a chronic heart condition, that his body bore no signs of injury from torture and that his death was not suspicious.

But rights groups say that the contradictory information surrounding his death speaks for itself, including statements from the interior ministry that Hadhoud was admitted to the hospital after attempting to break into a downtown apartment, whilst hospital reports say he was trying to steal a car outside the capital.

His family have said that the interior ministry is covering up the real cause of his death. His brother Omar told Reuters that Hadhoud did not have a history of mental illness and that he was critical of the Egyptian government prior to his death.

The case has once again underscored the widespread method used by Egyptian authorities, of forcibly disappearing Egyptian journalists, politicians, human rights activists and more.

In 2019 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi denied that there were political prisoners in Egypt, even though there are some 60,000, according to rights groups.