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.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
