Officials on Saturday resorted to expert opinion to explain the causes of the death of a protester on Friday.
Qais Goussous, head of the forensic team who did the autopsy on the body of Khairi Saad, said there was no evidence of brutality or beating on the body of the 56-year-old victim, who, doctors said, died of heart failure.
Saad’s family refused to take his body from the hospital’s morgue for suspicion that he was beaten by the police force and called for an independent party to run an autopsy to determine the cause of his death. They said there were bruises on the body and that the victim’s teeth were broken.
But the forensic expert disputed these claims.
“This morning I was assigned by the east Amman prosecutor to identify the cause of death and draft the forensic report. The autopsy was done in the presence of the president of the Jordan Medical Association [Ahmad Armouti], who attended upon request from the deceased’s family and Director of Prince Hamzah Public Hospital Ali Hiyasat,” Goussous said yesterday at a press conference held jointly by Interior Minister Saad Hayel Srour and Director of the Public Security Department Major General Hussein Majali.
He added that the results showed that there were no signs of violence used against Saad.
There were rumours of another death, but police on Saturday brushed them off, citing absence of any hospital or family reports of such a development.
By Hani Hazaimeh
