"American Facing Death Penalty in Egypt for Hemp Oil"

Phillip Smith (StoptheDrugWar.org):

Lost in Translation: Mostafa Soliman's trials and tribulations before and after the protests began, for importing hemp oil into Egypt border on the surreal. But there's nothing funny about the possible death sentence he's looking at.

A US citizen jailed as a drug trafficker in Egypt in December after importing a shipment of non-drug hemp oil there was freed from jail last week when mobs of protestors overran prisons across Cairo, but remains in legal limbo. Mostafa Soliman, who operates a company called Health Harvest, has so far been refused a new passport by the US Embassy in Cairo, which means he cannot leave the country. He faces a possible death penalty if convicted of drug trafficking. MORE...

Howie P.S.: This is a super-sized version of our own policies in the U.S.