Key senator looks to block Apache sale to Egypt over injured American
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is calling for the State Department to hold a billion-dollar US helicopter sale to Egypt until Cairo pays for the medical bills of an American wounded in a 2015 attack.
The top Democrat on the Senate’s powerful spending panel wants the Donald Trump administration to hold up a billion-dollar Apache helicopter sale to Egypt until it pays the bills of an American citizen wounded in a 2015 attack by the same US-made aircraft.
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who froze $300 million in US military aid to Egypt last year over alleged human rights abuses, has told the State Department that he wants Cairo to pay the medical bills of April Corley.
"We don’t know if the sale is going to happen, but we have made clear that the Egyptian government first needs to resolve April Corley’s case,” said an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
In November, the State Department announced its decision to approve the sale of 10 new Apache helicopters to Egypt “to address US-Egyptian interest in countering terrorist activities emanating from the Sinai Peninsula that undermine regional stability.”
