Ashraf Abo Arafe
Egypt’s justice minister accepted on Sunday a resignation submitted by the head of the country’s forensic medicine authority and appointed an interim head to carry out the daily duties.
In a statement reported by the Al-Ahram Arabic news website, justice minister Hossam Abdel-Reheem accepted the resignation from the forensics authority’s Hisham Abdulhamid, and appointed Soaad Hasan as the new head until she reaches retirement age.
The reasons behind Hamid’s resignation, who has held the post since January 2016, remains unclear; however several Egyptian media reports quoted Hisam saying that an “absence of a healthy work environment and full powers which enables me to carry out my duties” played into the decision.
Abdel Hamid, who was once the spokesman of the authority, is best known for his investigations related to slain Italian student Guilio Regeni in 2016, and more recently, investigations related to the death of two British tourists in Red Sea resort of Hurghada in late August.
