An Egyptian-American convicted on charges of terrorism has asked the US Congress to halt military and financial aid to Egypt.
“The current regime in Egypt has no interest in granting basic liberties to their people. Freedom for the general population does not promote the interests of the Egyptian military industrial complex,” Mohamed Salah Sultan said in his testimony Tuesday to Congress and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
Sultan, the son of a detained Muslim Brotherhood leader, was sentenced to 25 years in April over charges of participating in a major protest encampment by opponents to the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. He embarked on a 400-day hunger strike during his imprisonment. In June, he benefited from a presidential decree that allowed dual-national prisoners to leave Egypt in return for renouncing their Egyptian citizenship.
Sultan demanded that the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi be “held accountable in a manner that is proportionate to the massive aid we provide and as a major ally in an important region.” He also asked that the appropriations for Egyptian aid be amended in a way that requires all political prisoners be released.
The United States had briefly withheld its annual US$1.3 billion in military and economic aid to Egypt following Morsi’s overthrow, but resumed it in early 2015.
Besides Sultan, speakers in the session included Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director for the Middle East and North Africa Division of the Human Rights Watch and Daniel Calingaert, executive vice-president of Freedom House.
