Egypt says it's probing death of imprisoned US citizen

Egypt said Tuesday it would investigate the death in custody of a US citizen who had gone on a hunger strike as part of a six-year battle against what he insisted was wrongful imprisonment.

Mustafa Kassem, 54, an Egyptian-born auto parts dealer from Long Island, New York, died late Monday of heart failure after a hunger strike he began last year, his lawyers said.

The case has trained a spotlight on the dangers of Egyptian prisons, where many inmates are serving time for crimes they insist they did not commit, or have not been charged at all, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi escalates a crackdown on dissent.

Egypt's chief prosecutor ordered an autopsy and said officials are questioning all doctors who oversaw Kassem's care in prison and at the Cairo University hospital where he died.

In response to accusations of mistreatment and negligence, Egypt's interior ministry released a statement saying Kassem received proper medical care during his detention. The ministry said Kassem went on hunger strike despite warnings from prison authorities that his already poor health would deteriorate.

In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told reporters that Kassem's death was "needless, tragic and avoidable." "I will continue to raise our serious concerns about human rights and Americans detained in Egypt at every opportunity," he said.

Kassem was in Cairo to visit family in August 2013 when his lawyers say he was mistakenly swept up in a vast dragnet during the violent dispersal of an Islamist sit-in that killed hundreds of people.

That summer, security forces descended on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, in what became known as the "Rabaa Massacre."