Montasser was admitted to the intensive care unit last week after experiencing severe illness. His niece, Amira Montasser, told media last Monday that his health condition had deteriorated over the past three months.

Montasser is known for his daily column Mogarrad Raiy (“Just an opinion”), through which he discussed many political and social issues and presided over many awareness campaigns, including against smoking.

Montasser has numerous publications since the 1990s, including a book titled “Rise and Fall from Podium to Court” published in 2011 to highlight the fall of former Hosni Mubarak regime in that year.

The veteran journalist was a member of the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Press and chairman of the board of directors of the Egypt-based Arab Media Centre.

He also served for nine years, until 1994, as the editor-in-chief of the political-social October magazine published by Dar Al-Maref.

Moreover, Montasser was a member of the legislative Shura Council for almost two decades from 1989.

Montasser started his career as a student in the Faculty of Law at Ain Shams University. He spent the early years of his professional life at Akhbar El-Youm daily newspaper and Akher Saaa magazine. He then moved to Al-Ahram in the late 1950s.

The veteran writer was born in the port city of Damietta.