U.S. citizen Moustafa Kassem was arrested amid an enormous crackdown on sit-ins in Cairo in Aug. 2013. Police are proven arresting males as they clear a sit-in by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
Ahmed Gomaa/AP
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Ahmed Gomaa/AP
U.S. citizen Moustafa Kassem was arrested amid an enormous crackdown on sit-ins in Cairo in Aug. 2013. Police are proven arresting males as they clear a sit-in by supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
Ahmed Gomaa/AP
A U.S. citizen who was arrested in Egypt amid political chaos there in 2013 has died in Egyptian jail, in line with a State Division official and the person’s attorneys.
Assistant Secretary for Close to Jap Affairs David Schenker confirmed Moustafa Kassem’s demise to reporters at a briefing, describing it as “useless, tragic and avoidable.”
In keeping with a press release from Kassem’s attorneys at Pretrial Rights Worldwide, he died after a starvation strike that lasted greater than a yr. Final Thursday, he stopped taking liquids, his attorneys stated.
Kassem is initially from Egypt however had emigrated to New York, the place he labored promoting auto components. In the summertime of 2013, he traveled again to go to household.
That summer time, Egypt’s army ousted then-President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi had been democratically elected a yr prior however was deeply unpopular with the broader Egyptian public. In August 2013, the army forcibly dispersed two giant sit-ins of Morsi’s supporters, and rights teams say tons of of individuals had been killed.
Kassem’s attorneys say he occurred to be altering cash at a shopping mall close to the sit-in when he was stopped by Egypt army officers.
“After exhibiting his US passport, the troopers beat and detained him, later transferring him to legislation enforcement officers who continued this harsh therapy,” the attorneys’ assertion reads. “A diabetic with a coronary heart situation, jail officers restricted entry to needed medicines and medical look after the whole lot of his detention.”
After greater than 5 years of pretrial detention, Kassem was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail in a mass trial involving tons of of defendants in 2018. The mass trial was “of individuals accused of homicide and inciting violence,” in line with Reuters. Kassem was discovered responsible of collaborating in a protest, though his attorneys say “no individualized proof was ever offered in opposition to him.”
Kassem’s brother-in-law Mustafa Ahmed, who was with him on the time of his arrest, describes dire detention circumstances. “The cells are filthy, infested with bugs, rodents and snakes,” he wrote in an op-ed in The New York Instances final yr. “They haven’t any air flow, solar or mild. Moustafa and different prisoners haven’t any entry to scrub water, a mattress, a chair or any books.”
Ahmed says his relative felt strongly about occurring starvation strike. “I do know I could possibly survive for just a few weeks after I go on starvation strike,” Kassem is quoted as saying by Ahmed. “However I’ve no different choice. I might somewhat starve to demise than rot slowly and silently right here on this hell.”
Mohamed Soltan, one other U.S. citizen who was detained in the identical crackdown in Egypt, was on the identical jail with Kassem earlier than he was launched in 2015. Now, he advocates for different political prisoners in Egypt.
“He was on the mistaken place on the mistaken time,” Soltan advised NPR’s Michele Kelemen. “He is not politicized in any respect.”
He stated Kassem’s household is now devastated. As Kassem’s sister and brother had been on their strategy to Egypt after his demise, Soltan provides, “they discovered that the safety forces had been forcing the household to bury him very, in a short time, actually in the midst of the night time at 2:00 a.m. — not even giving the possibility for relations which can be overseas to see his physique and be there and have a correct funeral.”
Soltan urged the Trump administration to “do extra” to carry U.S. residents dwelling who’re imprisoned abroad. “We have to carry these Individuals dwelling.”
The post U.S. Citizen Moustafa Kassem Dies In Egyptian Prison, State Department Says : NPR appeared first on Down The Middle News.
source https://downthemiddlenews.com/u-s-citizen-moustafa-kassem-dies-in-egyptian-prison-state-department-says-npr/
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