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Tripoli, 12 March 2013:
The family of Ezzat Attallah, who died in a Tripoli jail on Sunday, met with Egyptian Ambassador to . . .[restrict]Libya Hesham Abdel-Wahab yesterday, Monday.
Attallah, a Copt, had been arrested in Benghazi at the end of February along as many as 50 other Egyptian Christians, accused of proselytising. Charges against most were dropped although they were deported for entering Libya illegally. He, along with three others, were held and transferred to Tripoli a week ago.
Yesterday, the Libyan embassy in Cairo was attacked by Copts following claims by a Coptic civil activist, Naguib Guebrayel, that Attalah had died after being tortured in jail. There were counter claims, however, that the 45-year-old, a diabetic who had had heart surgery, died of natural causes while in jail.
Members of Attallah’s family who had been in Benghazi and who had flown to Tripoli yesterday were also accompanied by the wife of one of other detained Egyptians as well as a lawyer appointed by the detainees’ families.
According to a statement issued by the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli, the ambassador had been told by Attallah’s widow that she had been informed by Libyan officials, including the coroner, and the other Egyptian detainees who were present at the time about the true circumstances of her husband’s death.
The embassy also reported that Egypt’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs spoke by phone to the widow during her meeting with ambassador and promised her all necessary procedures for repatriation of the body and the family to Cairo would take place this evening, Tuesday.
According to the ambassador, the embassy had been in contact with the four Egyptians following their arrival in Tripoli with several visits to the jail to make sure they were fine. He said there had been no complaints by them as to any ill treatment in Tripoli.
The embassy said it was following trying to secure the release of the three others as soon as possible. [/restrict]
