Moustafa Kassem was one of eight people to survive being locked in a police van outside Abu Zabaal Prison in 2013 alongside 37 other detainees who suffocated to death inside, one of the survivors in an adjacent van has told MEMO. Kassem later became the first US citizen to die in an Egyptian prison cell following consistent medical neglect for his diabetes and thyroid disorder throughout his incarceration. Kassem was first arrested shortly after the Rabaa massacre on 18 August 2013 when a number of demonstrators and passers-by were rounded up and put into several of Egypt’s blue prison vans. In the van that Kassem was in, there were 45 prisoners in a space big enough for 24. They were … Continue reading EXCLUSIVE NEWS: US-Egypt citizen Moustafa Kassem survived Abu Zabaal death van