Abdu Gaafar, the man who set him self alight in front of Egypt's parliament building on Monday morning, said he was frustrated by security treatment.
He revealed that security authorities in the governorate of Ismailia, east of Cairo, refused to provide him with his share of subsidized bread for the restaurant he runs at the city of Qantara.
Gaafar suffered 5 percent face burns before nearby officers managed to put out the fire and take him to hospital, according to a security source.
But a medical source estimated burns to 60 percent of his body, concentrated on his hands and legs.
A security source revealed that Gaafar is being interrogated, to find out if "foreign hands" were behind his act.
Officer Amr Zaki told reporters that while on duty in front of the People's Assembly building, he was surprised to see a man setting fire to himself on the sidewalk opposite.
He added that the man poured gasoline on himself and ignited it while chanting anti-state security slogans, before the officer put out the fire with the help of colleagues.
But Reuters news agency quoted a guard at the parliament's gate as saying a taxi driver actually used his fire extinguisher to help the protester before firemen employed by parliament came to help.
One guard said that security agents thought initially that the citizen was planning a sit-in, so had tried to move him away before he set himself on fire.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
