Egypt’s prosecution probes death of popular TV host Wael El-Ebrashy after widow’s complaint

Ahram Online , Sunday 16 Jan 2022

Egypt’s Prosecutor-General Hamada El-Sawy opened an urgent investigation into the death of veteran journalist and TV host Wael El-Ebrashy, who died last week due to coronavirus complications.

Wael
File photo: Wael El-Ebrashy

In a statement on Saturday, the prosecution said it took its decision after El-Ebrashy’s widow filed a complaint with the prosecution accusing a doctor of causing El-Ebrashy’s death.

Renowned lawyer Samir Sabry, representative of widow Sahar Abdou, filed the complaint last week against doctor Sherif Abbas, who treated El-Ebrashy during the early stages of his illness.

Sabry said El-Ebrashy “was the victim of a full-fledged murder” committed by the doctor.

Wael El-Ebrashy, the former presenter of the Al-Tasea (“9 o'clock”) program on national TV, contracted the coronavirus in late 2020 and was admitted to the intensive care unit of a quarantine hospital in Giza.

However, he left the hospital in March of last year after his health improved, but continued to receive treatment at home after developing pulmonary fibrosis due to the coronavirus.

This disease prevented him from returning to TV screens, despite frequent reports that he had almost recovered.

Abdou complained that the doctor persuaded El-Ebrashy to undergo treatment at home and take unknown pills that he claimed were effective against coronavirus, the prosecution’s statement said.

The widow also complained that the doctor smoked heavily in El-Ebrashy’s bedroom while treating him at home, despite the smoke’s negative impact, the statement added.

Although El-Ebrashy was diagnosed with lung inflammation and fibrosis, the doctor insisted on continuing to treat him with the same drug, which he claimed to have invented, the widow said in the complaint.

The widow said El-Ebrashy then contacted other doctors and was admitted to the hospital with a critical case of pulmonary fibrosis, according to the prosecution.

The doctors treated El-Ebrashy for over a year until he died as a result of the disease’s complications, the widow added.

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