US Senator Chris Murphy raises case of Dr Ahmed Amasha on Senate floor

US Senator Chris Murphy has raised the case of Dr Ahmed Amasha who was forcibly disappeared and subject to brutal sexual assault and torture in Egypt, on the Senate floor.

“One of my constituents is suffering through the pain and uncertainty of having a relative unjustly imprisoned in Egypt,” Murphy said.

“Mohamed Amasha is studying at Yale University pursuing his PhD, meanwhile his father Dr Ahmed Amasha was imprisoned in Egypt from 2017-2019 and rearrested and jailed in June 2020.”

Dr. Ahmed Abdelsattar – a veterinarian, activist, and the father of @Yale PhD student Muhammad Amasha – was forcibly disappeared and subjected to brutal torture and sexual assault in #Egypt.

Watch @ChrisMurphyCT raise his case on the Senate floor: pic.twitter.com/QWfpB5qNEq

— The Freedom Initiative (@thefreedomi) September 13, 2022

Vet, environmental activist and political prisoner Ahmed Amasha was first arrested in 2017, forcibly disappeared, tortured, banned from visits and denied adequate medical care.

Abuse against Dr Amasha in prison has included rape, beatings, electrocution and being threatened that his wife would be raped.

READ: Egypt: 3 prisoners die over 48 hours in prison

Amasha later appealed against his release in 2019, citing fear he would be forcibly disappeared again and tortured. He was rearrested in June 2020 which is when he was tortured so badly one of his ribs was broken.

Murphy’s comments on Dr Amasha come as he explains to the Senate why the Biden administration should withhold aid to Egypt due to significant human rights abuses.

An outspoken critic of Egypt’s treatment of political prisoners, Murphy is urging the Biden administration to withhold $300 million of aid that is conditioned on Egypt adhering to human rights conditions, including releasing political prisoners and allowing them due process.

Prisoners live in dire conditions, including having little to eat, being given inadequate medical care and being allowed few visits from their families.

Human rights organisations have reported that in just 48 hours three political prisoners have died in Egypt – Muhammad Zaki, Shabaan Fouad and Hassan Abdullah Hassan.

The Egyptian Network for Human Rights attributed the deaths to inhumane detention conditions.

Over 1,000 people have died inside Egyptian prisons since 2013, many due to torture or medical neglect.