Sick Islamist Dies In Egyptian Prison For Lack Of Care
CAIRO (AFP) - An Islamist ravaged by cancer died earlier this month in an Egyptian prison for lack of proper medical care, a group defending Muslim rights said Friday.
Mohammed Saad Osman, 37, a member of the Jihad group that assassinated president Anwar Sadat in 1981, died two weeks ago from leukemia in Cairo's Tora prison, the London-based International Commission of Human Rights (ICHR) said.
"Although he completed in 1998 the five-year sentence he was given in 1993 as part of a trial against the Jihad, Mohammed Osman was kept in prison for two years" without justification, ICHR said in a statement received here.
During his detention he suffered from leukemia, "a sickness which required his release," said the commission, which is part of the Islamic Observation Center.
The ICHR accused the Egyptian authorities of "not aiding him and not being interested in treating him."
Married and the father of two children, the prisoner was arrested first in October 1981 and jailed for five years in a mass trial for the assassination of president Sadat, ICHR said.
He was since then arrested several times before being sentenced in 1993, it added.
The ICHR said it "demands an independent commission of inquiry, international or local, to examine the medical situation of prisoners and ensure they obtain the necessary care.
"The commission demands the immediate release of all prisoners who have finished their sentences but are still in prison," it said.
