The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has expressed anger towards al-Sisi during their meeting on
the sidelines of the Berlin summit after the death of American citizen Mustafa Kassem inside Scorpion
Prison as a result of his year and a half long hunger strike.
Kassem, who is a dual American citizen, was arrested on August 14, 2013, during the break-up the Rabaa
Al-Adawiya Square sit-in, and was sentenced to 15-years in prison in 2018. Over the past 14 months,
Kassem had been on hunger strike to protest his imprisonment, before he refrained from liquid last
Thursday and died.
Kassem’s death sparked outrage in Washington where members of the House of Representatives
demanded the US government impose sanctions on the Egyptian government.
US Deputy Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, David Schenker, expressed his sorrow over
Kassem’s death, saying “his death in custody was unnecessary, tragic and avoidable.”