Egyptian jailed for criticizing Sissi died of alcohol poisoning, prosecutor says

6 May 2020, 6:18 pm

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Egypt’s public prosecutor says alcohol poisoning caused the controversial death in jail of a young music video maker after drinking liquid sanitizer he had mistaken for water.

Shady Habash, 24, who died in Tora prison in Cairo at the weekend, was imprisoned for directing a music video critical of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

“The deceased informed the physician on duty that he had drunk a quantity of alcohol at noon on the day before his death,” the prosecutor says in a statement. Alcohol-based sanitizers were distributed to inmates as a protective measure against the coronavirus pandemic, the statement adds.

It quotes the physician as saying Habash mistook the bottle for one full of water and later complained of stomach cramps.

— AFP