The forensic doctor who examined the body of Popular Current member and activist Mohamed al-Gendy told prosecutors Sunday that the victim died in a car crash.
Dr. Alaa Abdel Fattah said impacts of friction with an iron body were found while examining Gendy’s clothes, and said the death could not have resulted from torture or beating.
Gendy died at a hospital in early February after disappearing on 28 January from Tahrir Square during protests against President Mohamed Morsy’s rule.
Activists have blamed his death on torture by security forces. A human rights lawyer said his body had marks from torture and accused the hospital of changing Gendy’s arrival date to cover up his kidnapping.
Prosecutors questioned Abdel Fattah over testimonies of other witnesses, including Abdel Meguid Abdel Barr, 32, a cafeteria owner.
During investigations, Abdel Barr reportedly said the victim had died from torture by a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group inside a Central Security Forces camp in the Gabal al-Ahmar area. But he then reportedly backtracked from his previous testimony.
A bus stop employer testified that he had seen the victim being hit by a microbus coming from the 6th of October Bridge, saying he couldn’t remember the bus’s number.
A previous forensic report earlier this week said evidence suggested Gendy had been tortured, though Ehsan Kamil, head of the Forensic Medicine Department, had said the department could not rule out that the injuries were caused by a car crash.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
