Autopsy confirms Palestinian inmate died of cancer

PA Minister for Prisoners Affairs repeats charges that Abu Hamdiyeh didn't receive proper medical treatment for illness.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Palestinian prisoners in Israel's Ketziot prison 311 (R) (photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Palestinian prisoners in Israel's Ketziot prison 311 (R)
(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Palestinian Authority Minister for Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqi said Wednesday that initial results of an autopsy performed on the body of Palestinian prisoner Maissara Abu Hamdiyeh confirm that he died of cancer.
Qaraqi’s announcement came after an autopsy performed on Abu Hamdiyeh’s body by experts in a Palestinian forensic institute in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem.
Qaraqi said that the cancer had spread to various parts of the inmate’s body. He repeated charges that Abu Hamdiyeh had not received proper medical treatment for his illness.
Qaraqi also claimed that doctors in the Israeli prison had failed to make an early diagnosis of the cancer.
Abu Hamdiyeh will be brought to burial in Hebron on Thursday.
Earlier, the Health Ministry released a report of the L.
Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, where another autopsy was performed on Abu Hamdiyeh’s body.
“His death resulted from cancer that metastasized to the neck, chest, lungs, liver, spine and ribs, and there were no signs of external trauma,” the ministry said.
It noted that the head of the Palestinian forensic medicine institute took part in the autopsy.