CAIRO: A detainee in North Cairo’s Matariya police station died Thursday due to “circulatory collapse;” Youm7 quoted a security source as saying.
Following a “sudden sickness,” Kassim Mohamed, 49, was transferred from the police station to Matariya Educational Hospital where he died, the source said, adding that Mohamed was suffering from liver and kidney disorder.
Mohamed was sentenced to five years over charges of drug trafficking. Before the security source’s statements, Mohamed’s death was attributed by some news websites to bad detention conditions.
Poor conditions at police stations have raised concerns after a number of inmates died due to overcrowded cells that spread diseases among detainees.
The overcrowding problem, according to several human rights lawyers, is due to police stations are turning into prisons after receiving detainees of 15-45-day detention periods pending investigations.
In May, a detainee died after touching an air conditioner low-hanging cable in his cell at a Giza police station; however, security officials gave different accounts including that the inmate had died of a sudden “health disorder.”
Matariya police station has a bad reputation of alleged torturing practices against inmates, with reported death cases.
The second court hearing of the trial of two police officers, accused of torturing to death lawyer Karim Hamdy at Matariya police station is scheduled for July 28.
Additional reporting by Ibrahim Ahmed