Following the death of 41-year-old teacher Moustafa Gomaa on Sunday, whereby he was claimed to have fallen out of a window while being pursued by police, family members of the deceased and opposition figures claimed he had actually been thrown out.
The IMinistry of Interior said in a statement that the Homeland Security apparatus gathered information about Gomaa, and found that he participated in “operations against police officers and soldiers” in Fayoum
The statement added that Gomaa attempted to flee the officers who arrived to arrest him by jumping from his window. However, he sustained fatal injuries that led to his death.
Nonetheless, his family contests this narrative, saying police stormed into his apartment and “threw him” from his apartment the 11th floor.
Gomaa was school teacher in Alexandria, originally from Fayoum, a governorate known for heavy clashes between Islamists protesters and police forces.
His family added that he has been “wanted by the police since ouster of Mohamed Morsi,” and was injured in clashes between Islamists and riot police in 2013, causing him a permanent disability.
They further questioned “how a physically challenged person can supervise militant activities against police and army forces”. They added that the security forces stormed into the house, then tied and questioned him.
The Interior Ministry responded by saying such accusations are “lies spread by the terrorist Brotherhood group to acquire legitimacy among the masses. The interior ministry operates within the limits of the law”. The ministry added that the police forces in question had orders from the prosecution to pursue the arrest.
The Students Against the Coup (SAC) group said the incident is an example of the “continuous crimes of coup regime, which uses extrajudicial killing as a method of dealing with its opponents”.
A spokesperson from the Muslim Brotherhood said Monday that the incident shows that “the current regime does not believe in law or in justice”.
