Egyptian student attacked in U.K. dies of wounds

CAIRO - 14 March 2018: Mariam Moustafa Abdel Salam, the Egyptian student attacked in Nottingham, U.K., died on Wednesday in hospital while being treated for serious brain damage caused by the attack by 10 girls, according to the legal counselor of the Egyptian embassy in London.

“Mariam has been in coma for three days after she underwent a critical surgery in the brain to treat her deteriorated condition,” lawyer Emad Abu Hussein told Egypt Today, revealing that the hospital she was admitted to failed to treat her. “The hospital sent her home despite her severe cerebral hemorrhage,” Abu Hussein added.

In late February, Mariam, an 18-year-old engineering student based in Nottingham, U.K., was brutally beaten by 10 British women of African descent. The incident stirred condemnation of both the

Egyptian Foreign Ministry

and the

British embassy in Cairo

.

Mariam’s family is preparing to travel to the U.K. in order to bring her body home, Abu Hussein stated.

“The perpetrators are known to the British authorities, and soon they will be charged of killing Mariam,” Egyptian Ambassador to the U.K. Nasser Kamel told Ala Mas’olity TV show on Sada el-Balad channel on Wednesday.

On March 3, Egypt’s Attorney General Nabil Sadek ordered a

probe to be launched into the assault

. He ordered the International Cooperation Administration of the Public Prosecution to send a letter to the British authorities, asking to be updated on U.K. inquires about the attack and Moustafa’s medical report.

“The Egyptian embassy in London is acting on several levels since the attack; it communicates with the Home Office (British interior ministry), taking the necessary legal procedures and inquires about the hospital treatment that caused her condition’s deterioration,” Kamel added, affirming that the Egyptian embassy is keen on bringing the perpetrators to justice.

“This case is a priority to the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry,” Kamel asserted.

In a statement issued March 2, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that they are following all of the case’s updates with her family and that they demanded the British authorities to take more serious steps in investigating the abusers, especially that they were captured by the CCTV cameras from the streets and bus where the incident took place.

The statement also accused the hospital were Adel Salam was taken with “negligence”, as they gave her first aid treatment and checked her out while she needed more care; accordingly, she fell into coma shortly later. The ministry also hired Moustafa’s family a lawyer to follow the case’s legal updates, according to the statement.

Egypt’s Minister of Immigration Nabila Makram demanded escalating the punishment for the attackers for their brutality, affirming that she mandated her aide for Egyptian communities’ affairs to closely follow up the case.

“Gen. Samir Taha has visited Mariam at the hospital right before her death, and he will follow up the case with the Egyptian embassy in London,” Makram said on Wednesday, expressing her condolences to the family.

Moustafa’s mother posted a video on social media saying that her daughter is in critical condition due to being brutally beaten by the 10 women. She claimed that the assault was race-motivated, as her daughter doesn’t actually know those girls at all and never talked with them before.

“Four months ago, two of the same 10 women abused my daughter in the street with no specific reason. We went to the police station and issued an official complaint; however, nothing happened,” the grieving mother said in the video.

She added that when the 10 women saw her in the street walking alone, they attacked her once again and dragged her about twenty meters in the street. “She managed to get up and run towards one of the buses, but they went after her and started to beat her again. Just one man tried to defend her, but no one else tried to interfere,” the mother said.