[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 146 (Monday, September 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4530-S4531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Egypt

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, Egypt is one of America's closest 
allies. Our taxpayers send them more direct funding for their military 
than we send almost any other nation in the world.
  But here is what happens to political opponents of the Egyptian 
regime when they get arrested--and they get arrested at a dizzying rate 
and get sent to the infamous Tora prison. Arrivals there are 
blindfolded and then are forced to run through a human corridor of 
guards who pummel them with sticks until they collapse.
  Following this initiation for political prisoners, many of them are 
routinely beaten and tortured for months or years on end, often with no 
formal charges being filed. Some never make it out alive.
  Human rights groups estimate that there are around 60,000 political 
prisoners in Egypt.
  I get it. The big numbers sometimes lose their meaning in this place. 
But, by comparison, estimates are that Russia has 420. China likely has 
around a thousand. Egypt locks up 60,000 political opponents of the 
regime.
  To keep up with the demand of President El-Sisi's imprisonment spree, 
the country has had to build 60 new detention centers over the last 
decades. These prisons house some of the country's most prominent human 
rights defenders, journalists, opposition leaders, but also just 
ordinary people who are locked up for years because they just attended 
a protest or they liked a Facebook post or they recorded a TikTok 
video.
  Let me tell you a story of just one of these 60,000 people. Right 
now, one of my constituents is suffering through the pain and 
uncertainty of having a relative unjustly imprisoned in Egypt. Muhammad 
Amasha is studying at Yale University, pursuing his Ph.D. Meanwhile, 
his father, Dr. Ahmed Amasha, was imprisoned in Egypt from 2017 to 2019 
and rearrested and jailed again in June of 2020. According to the U.N., 
his detention seems ``to constitute [an act of reprisal] against Dr. 
Amasha for documenting cases of enforced disappearances for the Special 
Procedures of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.''
  Since his arrest in 2020, Dr. Amasha reportedly has endured abuse 
during his interrogations that resulted in broken ribs and other 
significant injuries. His abuse included rape, electrocution, threats 
to rape his wife, and physical abuse while blindfolded. He was forced 
to sign a written confession during his time of abuse.
  Since President El-Sisi came to power in 2013, more than a thousand 
people have died in Egyptian custody. Fourteen percent of those deaths 
were torture. More than 70 percent are because of a denial of 
healthcare.
  This isn't an adversary of the United States. This is Egypt, our 
ally. Every day that we continue to send billions of dollars to the 
Egyptian Government, while paying lipservice to these egregious human 
rights violations, it is a blow both to our Nation's character and to 
our credibility around the world.
  For the last several years, I fought to change our Egypt policy, and 
for the first time, in fiscal year 2021, we conditioned, with no 
waiver, $75 million of Egypt's $1.3 billion military aid package on 
``making clear and consistent progress on releasing political prisoners 
and providing detainees with due process of law.'' Because there is no 
waiver, the administration either has to certify that Egypt has made 
this progress to merit the release of the money or that they haven't 
made that progress and withhold the money.
  The record is clear that they have not. Let me just provide one way 
of measuring ``clear and consistent progress'' on releasing political 
prisoners. A group of Egyptian human rights organizations submitted a 
list of 2,954 known political prisoners to the government's 
Presidential Pardon Committee earlier this year. These are people who 
should not be in jail. They simply protested the government. And if you 
are going to be an ally of the United States, you shouldn't be locking 
people up for political speech. But of those 2,954 detainees, the 
government released 49. That is not ``clear and consistent progress.''
  Another metric: Since April, Egypt's terrorism courts have ordered 
the release of 417 prisoners. But over that same time period, at least 
4,400 political prisoners have had their detentions renewed by the 
courts. That is not ``clear and consistent progress.'' It is progress, 
but it is always one step forward and two or three steps backward, at 
best.
  Egypt has certainly not made the kind of progress required to merit 
the release of $75 million.
  In addition to that piece of funding tied to political prisoners, 
Congress has also tied an additional $225 million of Egypt's military 
aid to ``sustained and effective steps'' to improving Egypt's human 
rights record--a broader record of human rights abuses. The statute 
lays out that, in order to receive this money, Egypt needs to allow 
NGOs and the media to operate freely, protect women and religious 
minorities, hold security forces accountable when they violate human 
rights, and investigate and prosecute these cases of forced 
disappearances.
  Again, the record is overwhelmingly clear that things in Egypt have 
gotten worse on these fronts, not better, over the last year. 
Journalists are regularly still charged with ``joining a terrorist 
group'' or ``spreading false news'' for any critical reporting. Just 
last week, four journalists from the independent outlet Mada Masr were 
charged with a single news article that documented corruption within a 
political party close to the President.
  Earlier this year, human rights lawyer Youssef Mansour was charged 
with ``inciting terrorism'' after he wrote a social media post 
denouncing prison conditions.
  Egypt is also not content with imprisoning its critics at home but 
increasingly is pursuing its critics abroad. News reports emerged in 
December that a prominent opposition

[[Page S4531]]

leader who lives in exile in Turkey had his phone hacked with NSO group 
software. In January, the U.S. Justice Department arrested a foreign 
agent here acting on behalf of Egypt. This is not the behavior of a 
foreign government that has made ``significant progress'' toward 
improving human rights to merit the release of $225 million.
  Lastly, every year when we have this debate, there are always 
proponents who argue that, even though Egypt has this horrific human 
rights record, we should give them the money anyway. The argument is 
that because Egypt is a really important strategic ally, if we withhold 
just a portion of the $1.3 billion, Egyptians might stop cooperating 
with us or shop around for another partner.
  Let me just take a minute to address the fallacy of this argument. 
First, Egypt does provide strategic benefits to the United States. 
Egypt provides counterterrorism cooperation. It shares intelligence 
with us about shared threats. Access to the Suez Canal is critical for 
the United States. When violence does flare up in Gaza, Egypt often 
steps in and helps mediate and facilitate a truce through its ties with 
Hamas. There are good reasons for the United States and Egypt to be 
partners.
  And it is not crazy that we give them military aid, but we shouldn't 
delude ourselves into thinking that reducing our aid from $1.3 billion 
to $1 billion, after giving Egypt an entire year to meet these 
commonsense conditions, is going to cause the sky to fall. Just last 
year, the administration actually did withhold $130 million of Egypt's 
aid. Of course, the Egyptians were angry. It probably did make our 
diplomats' life a little bit harder in Egypt, but, by and large, our 
relationship didn't change. The Egyptians still cooperated with us on 
counterterrorism. They provided Suez overflight access. They again 
facilitated a truce in Gaza.
  Why? Because all of these areas in which we engage are beneficial for 
the Egyptians. They don't do it as simple payback for our aid. They 
engage with us on these issues. They engage with Israel because it is 
good for Egyptian security, notwithstanding whether they get $1 billion 
or $1.3 billion from the United States.
  We also sent a signal to the Egyptians by withholding some of that 
money last year. And while we didn't see significant improvements, we 
did see some political prisoners released.
  This year, we have to keep the pressure up. The United States needs 
not just to talk the talk when it comes to human rights abroad; we need 
to be able to walk the walk as well. And the decision that the 
administration will make this week as to whether to comply with the 
conditions set forth by Congress on holding the Egyptians accountable 
for progress on human rights is critical to American credibility 
globally when it comes to our call to protect human rights and 
democracy abroad, and, for that reason, I would urge the administration 
to withhold the full $300 million as called for by the appropriations 
act until Egypt's record gets better.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.