Egypt: Merkel should address catastrophic human rights situation

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has sent an appeal to Chancellor Angela Merkel, asking her to address the catastrophic human rights situation in Egypt during her visit to the North African state on Thursday. “The record of terror under the current President Abdel Fatah al Sisi overshadows the crimes under Egypt’s former dictator Hosni Mubarak,” says the letter the STP sent to the Federal Chancellor. “Egypt has become a police state in which the freedom of the press and the freedom of opinion are trampled underfoot and human rights activists are arbitrarily silenced. At least 67,000 people have been arrested for political reasons since May 2014. Almost 2,000 people were sentenced to death in unfair trials, while torture and violent deaths are commonplace in the prisons. A country like this cannot be a trusted partner for Europe.” Members of the opposition are suffering from massive persecution, causing a climate of violence – also against the Christian minority. The radical Islamists are attacking the Copts as a statement against the government, as it is trying to win over the Copts for electoral reasons. The Islamists and the state are instrumentalizing the Copts for their own interests.

On Sunday, Chancellor Merkel had published a video message, stating that she is also planning to address the difficult working conditions for German foundations in Egypt. “Local NGOs are even worse off, as their activists have to live with being monitored and intimidated. In 2016, at least 13 of their leading representatives were kept from leaving the country,” reported Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Africa-expert, in Göttingen on Tuesday. In September 2016, the accounts of three respected human rights organizations and five human rights defenders were frozen – and a bill passed by the Egyptian Parliament in November 2016 limits the work of non-governmental organizations.

Nearly 900 detainees are facing the death penalty, the STP fears. Local human rights organizations have registered 190 cases of torture and 47 deaths between July and November 2016. At least 187 people were abducted by the security forces between August and November 2016. Last Monday, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, the nephew of the murdered President Sadat, lost his parliamentary seat because he had been too critical about the catastrophic human rights situation. The situation for critical journalists is not much better. Thus, the president of the journalists’ association Yahia Galash was sentenced to two years imprisonment in November 2016 – and 25 journalists are currently imprisoned for political reasons.

Header Photo: Chaoyue PAN via Flickr