A senior leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Essam el-Erian has died at a prison hospital in Cairo, Egypt. Africa News reports that El-Erian had passed away on Thursday after suffering a heart attack. He was 66 years old.

El-Erian was taken in a crackdown on the Brotherhood’s leadership after it was forced from power in 2013. He had been detained in Cairo’s notorious Tora prison along with other senior Brotherhood figures. Egyptian authorities have, however, consistently claimed not to have mistreated prisoners nor neglected their health.

El Erian had served as deputy leader of the group’s Freedom and Justice Party. According to Africa News he had been tried and sentenced in cases allegedly linked to the upheaval that followed Egypt’s 2011 uprising.

The Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, elected president in 2012 and deposed the following year, died in June 2019. He collapsed during a court appearance at the prison.

Umm Muhammed Umar