Dubai: An inmate serving a life sentence died in solitary confinement at Dubai Central Jail on Wednesday, a police source told Gulf News.
Police said the epileptic prisoner died in his cell.
According to police the Omani inmate, in his mid-20s and indentified as Y.Sh, died at around 11am.
The source said that Y.Sh, convicted of selling a prohibited drug, had been in jail for about two-and-a-half-years.
Found with tablets
The man was placed in solitary after police found him with a number of tablets usually given by police as a treatment for prisoners addicted to drugs, the source said.
Y.Sh was caught by police swallowing a number of tablets during a routine inspection of his cell.
"It seems that he kept his medications with him to take many of them at one time so they would have a stronger effect on him," police said.
"When police came to inspect the cell he swallowed the tablets all at once, so he was placed on Thursday at noon in solitary confinement."
Y.Sh had family in Oman, according to police.
"The body of the deceased was sent to the forensic laboratory and his family will be contacted soon," police said.
Another prisoner told Gulf News by telephone that Y.Sh suffered from epilepsy and used to experience occasional seizures.
"He was locked up in solitary confinement by police and he fell ill after that," the prisoner, who was also in solitary confinement, said.
Calls unheard
"He called for the police but it seems they did not hear his calls."
The death of Y.Sh adds one more person to the list of those who have died in the past two years while in solitary confinement.
Some of them committed suicide, some fell ill, while others died after taking an overdose.
Police said prisoners were outraged because of the death of Y.Sh and started to cause disturbances in their cells.
"Riot police came to calm the prisoners down," the source said.
