Daughter of Muslim Brotherhood leader reported critically ill in Egypt prison News
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Daughter of Muslim Brotherhood leader reported critically ill in Egypt prison

Amnesty International reported Thursday that Aisha el-Shater is critically ill in prison due to torture and denial of medical treatment. Aisha is the daughter of Muslim Brotherhood senior leader Khairat el-Shater, and it is believed her treatment is a result of their relationship.

The group is calling on Egyptian authorities to end this detention, stating that Aisha’s life is “at serious risk.”

Aisha was arrested in November 2018 along with her husband Mohamed Abo Horira and 17 others. She spoke out about human rights violations leading up to her arrest and is being investigated for “membership in a terrorist group.” Since her arrest she “was subjected to severe beating, electric shocks and enforced disappearance.”

Aisha has been denied communication with with her family and her lawyer while in prison, which Amnesty alleges is torture under international law.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.