Mattar Mattar, a member of Wefaq, said Fakhrawi had died in police custody a week after he never returned home from a police station where he had tried to complain about his house being demolished by police.

„Either he was sick and didn‘t receive treatment or was tortured,“ Mattar said.

Wefaq said on Tuesday three Shia Muslim doctors and several staff from the education ministry had been arrested the day before, bringing the total number of detainees to 453.