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| Egyptian Court Sentences U.S. Citizen to Life in Prison | Egyptian Court Sentences U.S. Citizen to Life in Prison |
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| CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced an American citizen, Mohamed Soltan, to life imprisonment for supporting an Islamist protest against the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in the summer of 2013. | CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced an American citizen, Mohamed Soltan, to life imprisonment for supporting an Islamist protest against the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in the summer of 2013. |
| The presiding judge, Mohamed Nagy Shehata, sentenced more than 35 other defendants in the case to the same penalty and also confirmed death sentences in the same case for about a dozen defendants, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s top spiritual guide, Mohamed Badie, 71, as well as Mr. Soltan’s father, Salah Soltan. | |
| Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, was also sentenced to life in prison. Members of the Soltan family have said they will appeal the decision, and other defendants are expected to appeal as well. | |
| The verdict is the latest in a long series of similarly harsh sentences handed down at mass trials of dozens or hundreds of defendants accused of participating in violent protests or riots in the aftermath of the military takeover, often based on only police testimony or cursory evidence. Thousands more remain imprisoned without convictions. The sweeping penalties have drawn outraged denunciations from rights groups and milder rebukes from Western diplomats. | The verdict is the latest in a long series of similarly harsh sentences handed down at mass trials of dozens or hundreds of defendants accused of participating in violent protests or riots in the aftermath of the military takeover, often based on only police testimony or cursory evidence. Thousands more remain imprisoned without convictions. The sweeping penalties have drawn outraged denunciations from rights groups and milder rebukes from Western diplomats. |
| The case of the younger Mr. Soltan, 27, however, is exceptional because he is an American citizen. | The case of the younger Mr. Soltan, 27, however, is exceptional because he is an American citizen. |
| The verdict comes just days after President Obama released hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Egypt that had previously been suspended in response to the military takeover and subsequent repression. | The verdict comes just days after President Obama released hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Egypt that had previously been suspended in response to the military takeover and subsequent repression. |
| In a statement, the United States Embassy in Cairo said, “We remain gravely concerned about Mohamed Soltan and the outcome of his legal case.” | In a statement, the United States Embassy in Cairo said, “We remain gravely concerned about Mohamed Soltan and the outcome of his legal case.” |
| “We will continue to monitor his case closely and to provide him with all possible support,” the statement continued. “His health and well-being remain of particular concern and a top priority to us.” | “We will continue to monitor his case closely and to provide him with all possible support,” the statement continued. “His health and well-being remain of particular concern and a top priority to us.” |
| Raised in the Midwest by Egyptian immigrant parents, Mr. Soltan graduated from Ohio State University in 2012 and found a job in Cairo at a petroleum services company. Although his father, Salah Soltan, was a prominent and outspoken member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the younger Mr. Soltan disagreed with the group and criticized President Morsi, his family and friends say. But he has also said he opposed the military removal of Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first fairly elected president, because it was undemocratic. | |
| Mr. Soltan began volunteering as a translator for Western journalists covering the Islamist sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square to protest the takeover. Security forces forcibly broke up the sit-in on Aug.14, 2013, killing nearly a thousand, according to the best estimates provided by Human Rights Watch and others. Mr. Soltan was shot in the arm during the assault on the sit-in, and the police arrested him at his home several days later. He has remained in jail since then. | |
| He and the others in the case were reportedly accused of joining a command center at the sit-in that sought to spread chaos across Egypt in defiance of the government. | He and the others in the case were reportedly accused of joining a command center at the sit-in that sought to spread chaos across Egypt in defiance of the government. |
| Mr. Soltan has conducted a hunger strike for more than a year to protest his imprisonment, according to his family. In a recent letter to the family that was provided to The New York Times, American diplomats working on the case warned that his hunger strike “has done and continues to do severe, in some cases irreparable, damage to his body” and “is a significant threat to his life.” | |
| In a letter smuggled from prison and published on the website of The Times in early 2014, Mr. Soltan recalled volunteering for Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign and appealed to the president for help. “I often get asked sarcastically by judges, officers, and even inmates, ‘Where is this first world country that takes such pride in defending human rights and freedoms? Where are they now to help you?’” Mr. Soltan wrote. “Of course, I am left speechless every time.” | |
| In another smuggled letter, published on the website in November 2014, Mr. Soltan wrote that he found courage from the memory of a tough junior varsity basketball coach at his American high school. “Just like I was prepped to be a better basketball player, I was being molded by God to be a wiser human, an effective leader, and a stronger advocate of freedom and peace,” he said. | In another smuggled letter, published on the website in November 2014, Mr. Soltan wrote that he found courage from the memory of a tough junior varsity basketball coach at his American high school. “Just like I was prepped to be a better basketball player, I was being molded by God to be a wiser human, an effective leader, and a stronger advocate of freedom and peace,” he said. |
| In a telephone interview from the Washington, D.C., area on Friday night, his sister, Hanaa Soltan, said her family had been stunned by the death sentence for her father when it was first reported a few weeks ago. | In a telephone interview from the Washington, D.C., area on Friday night, his sister, Hanaa Soltan, said her family had been stunned by the death sentence for her father when it was first reported a few weeks ago. |
| “No one was really expecting it,” she said, adding, “I knew that when the sentencing came on, my dad was going to get a really tough one but — death sentence — I don’t think there’s really ever anything that prepares you for that.” | “No one was really expecting it,” she said, adding, “I knew that when the sentencing came on, my dad was going to get a really tough one but — death sentence — I don’t think there’s really ever anything that prepares you for that.” |
| Egypt’s military-backed government has banned the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist movement, and labeled it a terrorist group. The authorities have directed many of the cases involving political activists or the Brotherhood to a special circuit of courts, and Judge Shehata, who issued the verdict against the Soltans, has stood out for his swift and draconian rulings. In February, for example, he sentenced more than 180 defendants to death after a single, speedy mass trial in connection with a deadly attack on a police station in Giza, despite questionable evidence that all were involved or even present. | |
| He issued death sentences “like it is a joke,” Ms. Soltan said. | He issued death sentences “like it is a joke,” Ms. Soltan said. |
| Among other cases, Judge Shehata also sentenced three journalists working for Al Jazeera’s English-language network, including a Canadian citizen of Egyptian descent and an Australian, to seven-year prisons terms for broadcasting what the charges said were false reports of social unrest as part of a conspiracy with the Brotherhood. But prosecutors presented no publicly available evidence of either false reports or a Brotherhood conspiracy. An appeals court early this year found that the charges had not been proved and ordered a retrial. | |
| President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has effectively ruled Egypt since the military takeover, last year gave himself the authority to send foreigners convicted of crimes back to their home countries. He later exercised that authority to release one of the journalists, Peter Greste, an Australian. | |
| Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian who renounced his dual Egyptian citizenship in the expectation of a similar extradition, has instead been released on bail while awaiting a retrial. | Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian who renounced his dual Egyptian citizenship in the expectation of a similar extradition, has instead been released on bail while awaiting a retrial. |
| Mr. Sisi could extradite the younger Mr. Soltan to the United States, but the Egyptian president has given no indications that he plans to do so. | Mr. Sisi could extradite the younger Mr. Soltan to the United States, but the Egyptian president has given no indications that he plans to do so. |