Reports from Cairo today said the Egyptian soldier recently sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering seven Israeli tourists at Ras Burka in eastern Sinai last October 5 was found dead by hanging this morning in his room at the military hospital in Abbassiya, near Cairo.
The reports said a military investigation has begun into what appeared to be the suicide of 25 year-old Suleiman Khater. The former law student, doing his required military service, machinegunned a group of Israelis on the Sinai beach. The seven dead included four children.
He was sentenced by a military court on December 28 but was sent to the hospital for treatment of what was described as a blood ailment. He had 60 days to file an appeal for a reduced sentence. Family members who visited him at the hospital Sunday were quoted as saying he was in good spirits and not suicidal.
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