An inmate has died at the public prison in Mansoura, Daqahlia, while trying to adjust the electric connections for the fan in his cell, according to a report the prison chief sent to the governorate's security department.
Relatives of 23-year-old Khaled Gamal Abdel Ghany, who was serving a prison sentence for a murder conviction, accused prison officials of electrocuting their son to death in a complaint they filed with public prosecutors.
The father alleged he saw vivid injuries on his son’s corpse that indicate he had been beaten and killed by electric shocks.
Two fellow inmates said Abdel Ghany was trying to connect an electrical wire to the ceiling fan before a short circuit shocked him and he fell to the floor.
The prison's initial report said there was no suspicion of any wrongdoing. The prosecution has ordered a medical examiner to conduct an autopsy of the body.
Police torture of detainees was a routine practice under the rule of ex-President Hosni Mubarak. The death of Khaled Saeed, a young man in his late twenties who was killed at the hands of police officers in 2010, was one of the triggers for the demonstrations that ousted Mubarak during the 25 January revolution.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
