As Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi prepares to be sworn in for a second four-year term today, a wave of arrests signals his government’s fear of social dissent, analysts say.
People involved in the January 2011 uprising that brought down former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak are among those to have been detained amid a crackdown that began after March elections gave al-Sisi an official 97 percent of the vote.
Two of those arrested were blogger and journalist Wael Abbas and Shadi Ghazali Harb, one of the youth leaders during the revolution.
They also include Hazim Abdelazim, who has described his decision to head the youth committee of al-Sisi’s successful 2014 presidential bid as his “biggest mistake.”
“The arrests are in line with the repressive policies of recent years, which aim to subdue” all potential checks on power, French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs researcher Karim Bitar said.
A month ahead of the elections, the public prosecutor’s office told the media it would act against the dissemination of “false information” deemed detrimental to the nation’s “safety and security.”
The latest arrests show “nothing has changed in the security-focused policies of the regime,” Cairo University political science professor Mostafa Kamel el-Sayed said. “There is still worry of a repeat of what happened in January 2011.”
Economic hardship might also be making the authorities jittery, analysts say.
The government has imposed a value-added tax, cut fuel subsidies and hiked electricity prices as it seeks to keep to the terms of a US$12 billion loan deal with the IMF.
Authorities might also fear that activists would “use these circumstances to mobilize citizens against Sisi’s regime,” with figures who made their names in 2011 a particular source of concern, el-Sayed said.
A collapse in the value of the currency in late 2016 and resultant inflation has also left consumers feeling the pinch. Another electricity price hike and cut to fuel subsidies are planned for the summer.
To prepare the public for this unpopular medicine, state-run media has cited the government’s massive 104 billion Egyptian pound (US$4.97 billion) petroleum subsidy bill and the squeeze caused by oil prices rising back above US$75 per barrel.
Advocacy groups have condemned the arrests, with Human Rights Watch on Thursday denouncing a “state of oppression.”
“Sustainable stability and security can only go hand in hand with the full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini’s spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.
Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid rejected the criticism, saying the EU’s track record in human rights could also be condemned.
Abu Zeid pointed to “the immense difficulty and degrading treatment suffered by many immigrants and refugees, as well as the violations committed by law enforcement authorities” in the EU.
“That is in addition to the growing effect of the rise of extremist, right-wing parties and movements, with the ensuing manifestations of racism, discrimination, violence and hate speech,” Abu Zeid said in a statement.
Also last month, a military court sentenced Ismail Alexandrani, a prominent journalist and expert on jihadist movements in the Sinai Peninsula, to 10 years in prison.
The court has yet to issue its reasoning, but Alexandrani’s lawyer said he had been accused of publishing military secrets and belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt’s policy direction is at least in part the consequence of the West’s policies, Bitar said.
“The Western preference for Arab authoritarianism provides rulers in the Middle East blank checks that make them feel they have no limits in regards to oppression,” Bitar added.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese