The Public Prosecution decided Sunday to form a committee of five university professors specializing in forensic medicine to draft an unbiased report on cause of Popular Current member Mohamed al-Gendy’s death.
Gendy disappeared from Tahrir Square 28 January during protests against President Mohamed Morsy, and was later found dead.
A report previously issued by a Forensic Medicine Department committee on Gendy’s death said the activist had not died in a car accident, as had been claimed earlier. The report said it could not prove whether Gendy was exposed to torture, as his family says, and recommending hearing witness testimonies.
The prosecution requested that the report be discussed with committee members and that a friend of Gendy’s be summoned. Investigations proved the friend had contacted Gendy before his death.
Dr. Alaa Abdel Halim Ibrahim, a medical examiner who conducted an autopsy on Gendy’s body, previously told the Public Prosecution the victim had been killed in a car crash.
The Public Prosecution presented witness testimonies to Ibrahim, including that of Sherif Abdel Meguid Abdel Barr, a 32-year-old cafeteria owner, who testified that “the victim was tortured to death by group affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood inside a camp for the Central Security Forces in Al-Gabal al-Ahmar.”
But authorities said Abdel Barr later backtracked from his testimony.
Prosecutors also presented to Ibrahim the testimony of a bus stop worker who said he saw Gendy being hit by a microbus as he was coming down from the 6th of October Bridge. The worker added that he couldn’t remember the bus number.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
