Egyptian authorities allegedly tortured to death the brother of a prominent spokesman for Palestinian resistance group Hamas, who had been held in an Alexandria prison for the last six months, according to Hamas statements.
“Youssef Abu Zuhri, 38, brother of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, was martyred in an Egyptian prison cell as a result of torture," Fawzi Barhoum, another main spokesman for the group, said.
“My brother was brutally tortured in an Egyptian prison cell during the last couple of weeks,” Abu Zuhri told Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition via telephone from Gaza.
Abu Zuhri added that his brother had suffered a massive hemorrhage before being transferred by prison authorities to the Alexandria University hospital for treatment.
“They only moved him to the hospital after his condition deteriorated seriously," said Abu Zuhri. "But they refused to keep him at the hospital even though the bleeding never stopped."
He went on to say that his brother had died in his prison cell late Monday night, adding that his family had not been allowed access to the slain man.
Spokesmen for the Egyptian Interior Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry were not available for comment.
According to a number of prominent Egyptian bloggers, Egyptian satellite company NileSat abruptly pulled the plug on the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television channel while it was broadcasting a press conference devoted to the issue.
Abu Zuhri said that the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo had informed his family of his brother’s death, although an embassy official subsequently denied the report. “We didn't know about the incident so we didn't inform anybody,” the official told Al-Masry Al-Youm English Edition on condition of anonymity.
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