US citizen dies after being held in Egyptian prison for six years: ‘Trump gave a green light to this regime’

‘Like thousands of the country’s political prisoners, he should’ve never been detained,’ says US Senator

Mustafa Kassem (Kassem family)

A top American official decried the “needless, tragic, and avoidable” death of a United States citizen locked up in an Egyptian jail for over six years, but declined to condemn or harshly criticise the government of President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, who is close to President Donald Trump.

Mustafa Kassem, a 64-year-old auto repair shop owner and Egyptian-American citizen, was arrested in Cairo during the 2013 coup that brought Mr Sisi to power. He went on a hunger strike after he 15-year jail sentence was upheld in September following a mass trial that included more than 700 defendants.

He reportedly died over complications related to malnutrition. His daughter told Al Jazeera television, which is supportive of the Islamist Egyptian opposition, that he was subject to “negligence” in prison.

Egypt's chief prosecutor ordered an autopsy on Tuesday and said officials are questioning all doctors who oversaw Kassem's care in prison and at the Cairo University hospital where he died.

News of his death rippled across social media.

“Another prisoner killed by [Egyptian] prison cells,” wrote Egyptian-American activist Aya Hijazi, who was herself jailed until 2017, calling for the release of at least six more US citizens believed to be in prison in Egypt.

“Unfortunately, the Trump administration has given the green light to this criminal regime to get rid of its citizens,” Egyptian journalist Mohammed Gamal Helal wrote.

Egyptian authorities have launched a deep, wide crackdown on opponents of Mr Sisi in the years since he came to power, with allegations of extrajudicial killings, forcible disappearances, and detentions inside the country’s dank, disease-infested prisons without trial.

“Like thousands of the country’s political prisoners, he should’ve never been detained,” US Senator Chris Murphy, a New England Democrat often critical of Mr Trump’s Middle East policies, wrote on Twitter. “Pompeo must remind Egypt that military aid is legally tied to releasing prisoners, including at least six US citizens.”

The US this month launched airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militias after allegations that it had fired rockets at a US base, killing an Iraqi American contractor. That attack set off a sequence of events that led to the US assassination of an Iranian general and worries of a wider Middle East war.

Kassem and his family had pleaded with Mr Trump to intervene on his behalf. But just days after his sentence was upheld in court, the US president praised Mr Sisi. “Egypt has a great leader,” he said during a meeting with Mr Sisi in New York. “He’s highly respected. He’s brought order. Before he was here, there was very little order. There was chaos.”