Gamaa Islamiya leader dies in Egyptian prison

(MENAFN- Arab News) CAIRO: A prominent leader of a Islamic group that backed ousted Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi has died in jail in Cairo the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
It said Essam Derbala a senior leader in Gamaa Islamiya died on Saturday after returning from a hearing at his trial.
Police had arrested the 58-year-old in May on charges of inciting violence and joining a pro-Mursi opposition alliance.
A medical check-up showed Derbala had a fever low blood pressure and diabetes the ministry statement said adding that he had a history of diabetes and also previously suffered strokes.
'While being taken to the hospital he started bleeding from the nose and suffered low blood pressure and breathlessness that led to his death' it said.
Derbala was also an opponent of ex-President Hosni Mubarak who was forced out in 2011.
He was jailed for 25 years during Mubarak's rule for his alleged involvement in violence in Upper Egypt when Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.
Derbala was released from prison in 2006.
Gamaa Islamiya waged an armed insurgency in the 1990s and claimed responsibility for killing 58 tourists and four Egyptian guards at the famed temple city of Luxor in 1997.
It later renounced violence but became a strong supporter of Mursi during the leader's sole year in office.
Egypt's first freely elected president was ousted by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi in July 2013 after mass street protests.