Pompeo expresses 'outrage' to Egypt's leader over imprisoned American's death

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed US "outrage" in a meeting Sunday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over the death of an American national imprisoned in Egypt since 2013. Mustafa Kassem, a 54-year-old Egyptian-American who suffered from diabetes and heart problems, died January 13 after a hunger strike in which he ceased drinking fluids for four days before his death.

Pompeo, who met with the Egyptian president in Berlin on the sidelines of an international conference on Libya, "expressed outrage over the pointless and tragic death of detained US citizen Mustafa Kassem in Egypt," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

Pompeo had raised Kassem's case with the Egyptian authorities before his death in custody, and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, David Schenker, has denounced it as "needless, tragic and avoidable." Kassem, who had emigrated to the United States and was a naturalized US citizen, was arrested in the summer of 2013 while in Cairo on a home visit.