U.S. citizen who went on a hunger strike and claimed he was wrongfully imprisoned in Egypt dies after spending six years behind bars, the State Dept. says.
Kassem was exchanging money at a shopping mall near Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square when police stopped him and asked to see identification. When he handed over his U.S. passport, officers suddenly started beating him, and detained him. He was held for five years before he was charged.
When President Donald Trump secured the release of Egyptian-American rights advocate Aya Hijazi, who was imprisoned for three years in Egypt on false charges, Kassem appealed to the U.S. administration for help. Vice President Mike Pence raised the issue last year with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
“It’s a scary precedent,” Hijazi, who pressed for Kassem's release, told The Associated Press. “Both for what it means for the many political prisoners on hunger strike in Egypt right now ... but also for imprisoned U.S. citizens that have called on American authorities to respond to no avail.”“He was targeted not because he was a criminal, but because he was American,” she added, speaking about his arrest and imprisonment.
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