Long Island Man Imprisoned In Egypt Since 2013 Dies

BETHPAGE, NY — Moustafa Kassem, a Bethpage man who had been imprisoned by Egyptian authorities since 2013, died Monday.

Kassem, who had both citizenship in the United States and Egypt, died in custody in Cairo after he launched a hunger strike to protest his conviction on charges he and his supporters said were bogus, according to Newsday.

His hunger strike lasted more than a year, and he stopped taking his liquids on Thursday, his lawyers said, according to NPR. Kassem is originally from Egypt, but emigrated to New York, where he sold auto parts.

Kassem, 54, traveled home to visit his family in summer 2013. Egypt's military ousted then-President Mohammed Morsi around that time. In August 2013, the military forcibly broke up two large sit-ins of Morsi's supporters. Kassem was changing money at a shopping center close to the sit-in when he was stopped by Egypt military officials, his lawyers told NPR.

Egyptian soldiers snatched Kassem's American passport and stomped on it, the New York Times reported. He spent years in a high-security prison, where he said his diabetes and a heart ailment went largely untreated. He was then sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in September 2018. Kassem then went on his first of several hunger strikes, refusing solid food for months as a form of protest.

Congressmen Tom Suozzi and Peter King issued a joint statement on Tuesday on the death of Kassem.

"We are extremely saddened by the tragic death of Moustafa Kassem, a resident of Bethpage who had been wrongfully held in Egyptian prison for the last six years. Moustafa was a father of two and small business owner, who despite our repeated attempts to secure his release through letters and communications with the Department of State and Egyptian government, remained imprisoned.

During his imprisonment, Moustafa, who had several serious illnesses, faced dire conditions and limited access to proper medical care. Moustafa’s family, United States government officials and lawmakers urged the government of Egypt to return him to the United States, to no avail."