Friday, January 17, 2020

A FORGOTTEN AMERICAN BECAUSE HIS NAME WAS NOT JOHN SMITH

Senators call on Trump to issue 'immediate' sanctions after US citizen dies in Egyptian jail


Mustafa Kassem, American citizen who had been held in Egyptian prison for past five years, died on Monday after series of hunger strikes


Chris Van Hollen, one of two US senators who penned letter on Thursday, had long advocated release of Mustafa Kassem (AFP/File photo)
By MEE staff Published date: 16 January 2020

Two US Senators called on President Donald Trump to "immediately" sanction Egypt over the recent death of Mustafa Kassem, an American citizen who had been held in an Egyptian prison for five years.

Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Patrick Leahy in a letter to Trump called for immediate visa restrictions against Egyptian government officials involved in the detention of Kassem, who died on Monday after a series of hunger strikes.

"Mustafa Kassem’s death was a needless tragedy, after years of unconscionable mistreatment at the hands of Egyptian authorities," the senators wrote.

Moustafa Kassem's death was due to 'failures by the Trump administration

Van Hollen and Leahy also called on the president to make a statement declaring Egypt's treatment of Kassem "a gross violation of internationally recognized human rights" and to impose Global Magnitsky Act sanctions on those responsible for Kassem's death.

The Global Magnitsky Act is a human rights bill passed by Congress in 2016 that allows the US government to sanction foreign officials implicated in human rights abuses around the world.

Kassem, a dual Egyptian-American citizen, was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 after a military coup that brought Sisi to power.

Kassem said he was wrongfully detained by Egyptian soldiers when he happened to be at a shopping centre near demonstrations at Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square.

After spending more than five years in pretrial detention, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail in a mass trial involving hundreds of defendants.

"Egyptian officials never presented any evidence implicating Kassem - because there was none," the senators wrote in their letter to Trump on Thursday.

Both senators have long followed Kassem's case, with Van Hollen having met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi over the summer to discuss his release.

When I met with President Sisi last summer, I asked him to release Mustafa Kassem. When he refused, I worked with @SenatorLeahy to hold the regime accountable for unlawfully detaining and torturing Americans. Trump needs to implement our sanctions and stop embracing dictators. pic.twitter.com/hkO36xR6eJ— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) January 16, 2020

At a news conference on Wednesday, Van Hollen called Kassem's death a "killing" enabled by "failures by the Trump administration" to apply the necessary pressure to secure his release and the release of other Americans detained in Egypt.

Before his death, Kassem had written letters to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence asking them to secure his freedom.

Since 2013, Sisi's government has overseen a broad crackdown on dissent, with as many as 60,000 people jailed.

Still, Trump has repeatedly heaped praise on the Egyptian leader, even calling him "my favourite dictator".

"This killing should serve as a wake-up call," Van Hollen said on Wednesday.

On Monday, when asked if the Trump administration planned "to do anything to penalise the Sisi government" over Kassem's death, a senior State Department official told reporters it was "still premature to talk about that".

"We are really concerned about this and we're going to talk about it, about what we're going to do. We haven't decided yet," the official said.

There are said to be at least six US citizens currently held in Egyptian prisons.

Egypt is the second-biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel, receiving $1.4bn every year.

While the US has cut aid to Egypt in the past, citing human rights concerns, the Trump administration has waived human rights conditions that have applied to some $300m in aid.




US confirms 'avoidable' death of American held in Egyptian prison

Moustafa Kassem, who was arrested in 2013 after the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president, had protested his innocence


Egyptian security forces are deployed near Cairo's Tora prison (File: AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 14 January 2020

An American imprisoned in Egypt for more than six years on what he insisted were false charges, died on Monday after a long hunger strike, the State Department has said.

Moustafa Kassem, 64, a dual Egyptian-American citizen, was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 following a military coup that brought Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power.

Kassem had insisted he had no links to opposition politics and had been wrongfully detained by Egyptian soldiers when he happened to be at a shopping centre near Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square.

The dispersal of a sit-in at Cairo's Rabaa square on 14 August 2013 saw soldiers and police shoot dead more than 800 protesters in a matter of hours, and arrest thousands.

The bloody crackdown came weeks after the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Human Rights Watch concluded that the killings "likely amounted to crimes against humanity" and "were part of a policy to attack unarmed persons on political grounds."

'His death in custody was needless, tragic and avoidable,'
- David Schenker, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs

After spending more than five years in pretrial detention, where he said his diabetes and a heart ailment went largely untreated, Kassem was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail in a mass trial involving hundreds of defendants.

Soon after that, Kassem went on the first of several hunger strikes, refusing solid food for months on end to protest what he called his unjust imprisonment.

He wrote letters to both US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, asking them to secure his freedom and not make his wife a "widow".

"I am deeply saddened to learn today the death of US citizen Moustafa Kassem who'd been imprisoned in Egypt," Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told a State Department briefing on Monday.

"His death in custody was needless, tragic and avoidable," he added.

Kassem's brother-in-law Mustafa Ahmed, had previously described conditions at the maximum security Tora prison, where he was kept, as dire.

"The cells are filthy, infested with insects, rodents and snakes," he wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times last year.

"They have no ventilation, sun or light. Kassem and the other prisoners have no access to clean water, a bed, a chair or any books."
Trump's 'favourite dictator'

Since 2013, Sisi's government has overseen a broad crackdown against dissent, with as many as 60,000 people jailed.

While members of the Muslim Brotherhood - to which President Morsi belonged - were the main target, secular and left-wing activists have also been imprisoned.

Morsi died in jail last June, after enduring almost six years in solitary confinement.



How the death of a president shed light on Egypt's brutal dictatorship 
Read More »


A 2018 report by members of the UK Parliament had warned that the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" conditions of Morsi's detention, including lack of medical care, may lead to his death.

Sisi won a second term in March 2018, in what critics called a "sham" election. He secured more than 97 percent of the vote.

The presidential elections featured only one other candidate - Moussa Mustafa Moussa - an ardent Sisi supporter who once formed a campaign group called: "Supporters of President Sisi's nomination for a second term."

Egypt is the second-biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel, receiving $1.3 billion every year.

Trump has repeatedly heaped praise on the Egyptian leader, even calling him "my favourite dictator".

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