U.S. troubled by sentencing of Egyptian politician
Source: Reuters
By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it was troubled by the sentencing of an Egyptian politician to a year in jail for insulting the military but said the case would not affect U.S. aid to Egypt. Talaat Sadat, a nephew of the late President Anwar Sadat, on Tuesday became the second prominent Egyptian politician in less than two years to lose his parliamentary immunity and end up in jail following his sentencing by a military court. "We are extremely concerned by the Egyptian government's conviction and sentencing to imprisonment of Mr. Sadat, by a criminal tribunal, for expressing his opinions," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "The keystone of a democratic society is the right to free speech, including the right to criticize one's government, and that extends to its military," he added. The lawmaker sparked an uproar in Egypt when he said he believed Anwar Sadat's 1981 assassination was the result of an international conspiracy in which senior Egyptian military officials at the time were involved. An Islamist militant shot the former president dead as he watched a military parade. The gunman was tried and executed. The United States has been critical of Egypt over the last two years for the slow pace of democratic reform and for a pattern of crushing political dissent, including the jailing of opposition politician Ayman Nour. Nour, who ran against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in September 2005 presidential elections, is serving a five-year sentence on what he says are fabricated fraud charges. While critical, the Bush administration has not wanted to unduly antagonize Egypt, a country of strategic importance in combating terrorism and promoting Middle East peace. Among other things, Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has given the United States overflight rights to Iraq, provided troops to try to stop the violence in Darfur and played a key role in dealing with the Palestinians. Egypt is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid after Israel and Iraq and gets nearly $2 billion a year from Washington in military and economic assistance. Since 1979, the United States has pumped more than $60 billion of aid into Egypt. Asked if Sadat's jailing would have an effect on U.S. aid to Egypt, McCormack told reporters: "I don't believe so. I haven't heard anybody talk about that."
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