AN Egyptian mother has been arrested for tying her mentally unstable son in his bed and leaving him to die, police said. Fawqiya Mahmud Ismail tied her 19-year-old son Hazim Taha Ibrahim to his bed by his arms and legs after he had a screaming fit and caused a disturbance. Ibrahim, an arts student in Cairo who spent three months in a mental hospital earlier this year, was then left without food until he died. His mother confessed and was arrested after a doctor became suspicious when she tried to persuade him to give her a certificate of death from natural causes. – AFP