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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number