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Egypt's oldest and most famous political prisoner has died at the age of 74.

Nabil al-Maghrabi passed away at Manyal University Hospital in Cairo, where he had been receiving treatment for the past ten days.

The jihadist leader had been suffering from cancer and liver diseases according to the Turkish news agency Andolu.

Maghrabi, who was detained at Aqrab prison, was held on charges of establishing and running a terrorist group, Islamic Jihad. The group is affiliated with al-Qaeda and targeted Egypt's state institutions and armed forces.

After he fell ill, a trial session scheduled for Tuesday 2 June was postponed.

He was to be tried along with 68 other defendants, including Mohammad Rabie al-Zawahiri, the brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri.

Maghrabi was detained in 1979 and later convicted of involvement in the assassination of late Egyptian President Mohammad Anwar al-Sadat on 6 October 1981. He was added to the list of defendants in the case because he was accused of being involved in the creation of the group that carried out the assassination.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1981, but remained a prisoner for years after completing his sentence.

After being released following the January 2011 revolution, he was re-arrested in 2013 when the army ousted Mohammad Morsi, Egypt's first elected civilian president.

The Jihadist leader graduated in 1973 from the Spanish department at the University of Ain Shams in Cairo.

After graduating he married and had four sons before being detained. He did not see his children again until the eldest was 12.

Maghrabi, a former reserve officer in Egypt's military intelligence fought in the October war in 1973.