Rights groups say probe into Egypt economist’s death flawed

CAIRO (AP) — Two leading human right groups are accusing Egyptian authorities of failing to conduct an impartial and transparent investigation into the suspicious death in custody of an economic researcher. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused in a joint statement on Thursday Egyptian prosecutors of turning a blind eye to evidence that 48-year-old Ayman Hadhoud disappeared, was tortured, and was denied access to timely healthcare. His whereabouts were unknown for two months by the time he was pronounced dead in April. The Interior Ministry said then that he had died in a government-run psychiatric hospital in Cairo where he was brought for allegedly attempting to break into a Cairo apartment.