A Palestinian national, Ayman Moussa Al-Gazar, has died inside a detention centre in El-Arish, the capital of Egypt’s restive province of North Sinai, the deceased family members said on Wednesday.
Al-Gazar was reportedly detained by state security police in August last year and has been held without charge since then.
The Palestinian’s health, however, deteriorated in detention and he lost his life on Saturday. His body was given reportedly given to his wife and he was buried in El-Arish on Tuesday.
Al-Gazar was said to have died of cardiac arrest. However, his family claimed that his death was the result of “deliberate medical negligence inside detention.”
There was no immediate explanation as to why Gazar, who was born in North Sinai and lived there, was detained last August.
Gazar was 51 years old when he died and suffered from numerous chronic illnesses, including diabetes and hypertension.
Human rights groups estimate that about 60 detainees died in Egyptian prisons in 2021 alone.
There have been tensions in North Sinai since 2013 and the Egyptian authorities have been dealing with an IS-led insurgency that grew after the overthrow of the country’s first democratically elected leader, Mohammed Morsi.
Almost every aspect of civilian life in the province has been affected by the insurgency.
