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A taxi driver in New York City, a US citizen arrested in Egypt when he went to visit his wife and children, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in what his lawyers call "false" and "shame".
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Mustafa Kassem, sentenced on Saturday to a trial of over 700 co-defendants, was found guilty of trying to overthrow the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi.
He has already been detained in Egyptian prisons for five years since his arrest in August 2013 at a checkpoint in Cairo, while visiting his wife and two children, then aged 3 and 6. years. He was shopping when security officials detained him, accusing him of taking part in protests in a neighboring square against a military takeover led by General Sisi. , according to Kassem's lawyers.
One of Kassem's lawyers has called the accusations against his client "false" charges against "an innocent American".
Khaled Desouki / AFP / Getty Images, FILE
"What a shame," said lawyer Praveen Madhiraju, executive director of Pretrial Rights International. "The White House and the State Department should not sit idly by when they are completely disgraced by an" ally, "Madhiraju added.
The Egyptian Embassy and the White House have not yet responded to requests for comments from ABC News. A spokesman for the State Department said he was "deeply concerned about the conviction" and raised his case "several times with the Egyptian government".
"The State Department takes seriously its responsibilities to help US citizens abroad," the spokesman said. "We will continue to provide appropriate consular services."
Kassem's case was followed by the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence claiming that he had raised it directly with Sisi when the two men met in Cairo in January.
Hassan Mohamed / AFP / Getty Images
The administration has given priority to the release of Americans illegally detained abroad. But the appeal of Pence was not enough to release Kassem at the time or help him avoid a conviction now.
Kassem is one of the many US citizens currently held by Egypt, swept away by Sissi's massive crackdown on political opposition and civil society since the military took power after several days of demonstrations against the government democratically elected by Mohamed Morsi.
According to a Human Rights Watch report released last year, while there are about 20 Americans in Egyptian jails, there are up to 60,000 political prisoners.
Sisi has 10 to 12 times more political prisoners than former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, who was expelled at the 2011 Arab Spring, according to a Freedom House report released in 2006 during the reign of Mubarak.
Saturday's mass trial made a total of 75 death sentences and over 600 in jail for the August 2013 protest crackdown by security forces. 800 killed.
Kassem, 53, is diabetic with heart disease.
But in Egyptian jails, his lawyers denied him regular access to medical treatment, including insulin. According to his lawyers, the equal demands of his family to have him hospitalized have been refused or simply ignored by the Egyptian authorities.
Hassan Mohomed / AFP / Getty Images
"Mustafa can only be very strong," his sister Iman Kassem said in a statement on Saturday. "For his children and to prevent another tragedy, we urge President Sisi to immediately release and pardon Mustafa and the US authorities to help him find him at home."
Without this treatment, Kassem experienced frequent body tremors, lost control of his extremities temporarily and his vision worsened.
"It is not yet known how long he will be able to survive" in detention, his lawyers warned in a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last month.
When Kassem was arrested and presented his US passport, his lawyers said that he had been beaten, accused of espionage and charged with causing chaos and overthrowing the government for his involvement presumed in the demonstrations.
The Egyptian government had also asked for the death penalty.
According to his lawyers, with more than 700 other defendants, his detention was renewed en masse every 45 days for more than five years, even though the Egyptian law allows detention on remand for only two years.
The famous Egyptian photojournalist Shawkan, who covered the protests, as well as several senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, were sentenced Saturday for their alleged roles in the protests. Cases have been dropped against five people who died in prison, judicial sources told the news agency.
The Trump administration has been accused of showing softness towards Egypt, with a close connection and warm words between strongman Sisi and President Trump.
Mohammed Abdel Moneim / AFP / Getty Images
In July, the State Department announced that it was providing $ 195 million in aid to Egypt, which had been denied for human rights reasons.
Although Egypt has not taken any noteworthy steps to resolve human rights issues, the State Department has indicated that it is providing aid. in the spirit of our efforts to strengthen this partnership, "said an official at ABC News.
The American effort has sometimes yielded results. In April 2017, Egypt released Aya Hijazi, an American citizen and humanitarian worker, her husband Mohamed Hassanein, and four others after Trump and his senior aides asked Sisi to do so as a sign of goodwill.
But even then, Trump seemed to blame President Morsi for his detention, according to Hijazi.
Morsi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a political party that enjoys support in the Middle East and is considered by some to be a US terrorist network.
Hijazi told PBS Newshour that Trump had a "conviction" that the Morsi government had arrested him, not the strong man Sisi, whom the US president had described as "fantastic guy" a few days before the release of Hijazi.
