Category Archives: Abdel Fatah al-Sisi

Desperate Egypt sells off historic hotels as it dives deeper into debt

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Amid biting austerity and rising inflation, the al-Sisi government is off-loading assets – some to a convicted murderer with Emirati cash

As dusk fell over the verdant grounds of the Marriott Mena House hotel, the reflection of the Great Pyramid of Giza grew darker in a pool built to reflect the last of the seven wonders of the world.

A band played a smooth jazz rendition of the Eagles’ Hotel California on the grassy lawns as guests assembled for dinner, while the staff attempted to project a sense of business as usual, despite the hotel’s recent acquisition by an infamous Egyptian real estate tycoon, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, and two powerful Emirati conglomerates.

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Palestinians desperate to flee Gaza pay thousands in bribes to ‘brokers’

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Fixers with alleged links to Egyptian intelligence are making a fortune in ‘fees’ from people hoping to exit through the Rafah crossing

Palestinians desperate to leave Gaza are paying bribes to brokers of up to $10,000 (£7,850) to help them exit the territory through Egypt, according to a Guardian investigation.

Very few Palestinians have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing but those trying to get their names on the list of people permitted to exit daily say they are being asked to pay large “coordination fees” by a network of brokers and couriers with alleged links to the Egyptian intelligence services.

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Egypt’s Sisi wins third term as president after amending constitution

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President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi wins Egypt election with 89.6% of vote after facing no serious challengers

The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was voted in for a third term on Monday after an election where he faced no serious challengers, calling the vote a rejection of the “inhumane war” in neighbouring Gaza.

The president was able to claim the top job after Egypt’s constitution was amended in 2019, extending the presidential term to six years from four, and allowing Sisi to stand for a third term.

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Sisi poised to win power again, but Egyptians’ minds are on Gaza

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There’s no chance of a fair election on Sunday, but Egypt president’s weakness on Gaza is showing in a country racked by poverty, corruption and inflation

For Egyptians, the only signs that an election is imminent are the posters of President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi’s face plastered on every available wall and billboard across the country.

The repetitive images of Sisi – always gazing into the distance with a stiff, forced smile – are so ubiquitous that people have turned to the only venue for free expression they have left and have begun making memes of them to share online. One picture that circulated features Jack and Rose from the film Titanic sitting on the deck of the ship surrounded by Sisi’s campaign posters. In another, people joke that a pregnant woman passed so many pictures of Sisi on her way to work that her newborn baby resembled the incumbent president.

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Why Egypt has not fully opened its Gaza border for fleeing Palestinians

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President Sisi has been criticised for allowing few refugees through, but housing large numbers would be a big political risk

Egypt has been caught in a dilemma for weeks about opening the Rafah crossing into Gaza: wanting to help the most seriously injured Palestinians leave, but adamantly refusing to contemplate a surge of Palestinian refugees into the Sinai peninsula. “We are prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory,” Egypt’s prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, said earlier this week.

The negotiations over the release of wounded Palestinians and some foreign nationals, largely overseen by Qatar, have been inextricably linked to the flow of aid from Egypt into Gaza over the same crossing. The US president, Joe Biden, negotiated a passage for aid through Rafah, but levels are low compared to what is needed. On Wednesday the UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths, again called for Israel to reopen Kerem Shalom, the crossing it controls at the southern tip of Gaza.

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Sunak reiterates support for two-state solution in meeting with Abbas

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PM met Palestinian Authority leader in Egypt as part of tour of the region to try to prevent the conflict escalating

Rishi Sunak has held talks in Cairo with the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, where the two men condemned Hamas and the prime minister reiterated the UK’s support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“The leaders agreed on the need for all parties to take steps to protect civilians, and civilian infrastructure, and minimise the loss of innocent lives,” a spokesperson for Sunak said.

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Leading critic of Egyptian state jailed for six months

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Free speech advocate Hisham Kassem sentenced for defaming former minister Kamal Abu Eita

A court in Cairo has sentenced a former newspaper publisher, free speech advocate and rights activist to six months in prison, in a trial observers say constitutes an attack on a leading critic of the Egyptian state.

Hisham Kassem, the former publisher of Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, received six months in detention and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (approximately £523) for slandering and defaming Kamal Abu Eita. Abu Eita is a former minister and current member of Egypt’s presidential pardon committee, tasked with granting clemency towards some of the tens of thousands of detainees in the Egyptian prison system.

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MPs and peers urge UK government to do more to free jailed activist in Egypt

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More than 100 signatories express concern in letter to foreign secretary over lack of progress in case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah

More than 100 MPs and peers have written to the foreign secretary to express concern over the lack of progress to free a jailed British-Egyptian activist.

It comes seven months after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, shook hands with Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, while Alaa Abd el-Fattah was close to death due to a hunger strike.

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Egyptian army has turned Sinai schools into military bases, says rights group

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Exclusive: group says military is compromising children’s right to education with its campaign against militants

Egyptian forces have taken over 37 schools and transformed them into military bases while dozens more have been destroyed during a 10-year war with militants in Sinai, a rights group has found in an initial assessment.

In a months-long investigation shared with the Guardian before its official release, the UK-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) accused the Egyptian armed forces of compromising the right to education of children during its campaign against militants in north Sinai.

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Journalists go on trial in Egypt for ‘offending MPs’

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Mada Masr, Egypt’s only remaining independent news outlet, reported alleged corruption among supporters of President Sisi

Three journalists from Egypt’s last remaining independent news outlet have gone on trial in Cairo on charges of misusing social media and offending members of parliament.

Rana Mamdouh, Sara Seif Eddin and Beesan Kassab, who work for the Mada Masr news platform, face up to two years in prison and fines of 300,000 EGP (£8,100) if the court convicts them.

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‘Life is ebbing away’: Egyptians face peril at sea in dangerous new exodus to Europe

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Poverty puts thousands into the grip of people smugglers plying a deadly trade in the Mediterranean

Youssef initially doesn’t want to remember the treacherous boat journey that took him from Egypt, then to Tobruk in Libya and finally to Italy, but he knows clearly why he left.

A young man in his 20s, Youssef is recently married and expecting a baby in a few months, and fears about the increasing cost of living in Egypt overwhelmed him. He gave in and contacted a people smuggler on the internet, using a Facebook group where those looking to migrate can post information about crossings.

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Cop27 backfires for Egypt as signs of repression mar attempt to bolster image

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Harassment of climate summit delegates and holding pen for protesters mar country’s attempt to polish international reputation

An empty pen designed to contain protesters in the middle of the desert, harassment and surveillance of Cop27 delegates (including evidence that the official conference app could spy on them), food and water shortages, and widespread problems with accommodation have all served to undermine the Egyptian government’s attempts to use the climate talk to bolster its international image.

Belgian politician Séverine de Laveleye said she was briefly detained by Egyptian security forces while entering the conference centre simply for carrying badges depicting some of Egypt’s 65,000 political prisoners, including British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah. “It’s clear that human rights aren’t even respected at the heart of the Cop,” she said. “Sisi’s Egypt is one of repression.”

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World leaders at Cop27 urged to press Egypt over prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah

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Global spotlight on host country has heightened scrutiny of human rights record, with Biden due to meet Sisi

As Egyptian officials strive to control the narrative and isolate the case of the detained British Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, pressure is mounting on world leaders at Cop27 to acknowledge Egypt’s poor human rights record and raise his case.

The Egyptian authorities have engaged in a sweeping public relations campaign to try to discredit Abd el-Fattah, including a digital campaign depicting him as a threat to national security.

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Release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah key to UK-Egypt relations, former diplomat says

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Ex-ambassador warns hunger striker’s situation at crucial stage after Rishi Sunak meeting with Egyptian president

The release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the detained British-Egyptian pro-democracy activist who is on hunger strike, has become the defining issue for British-Egyptian relations, the former British ambassador to Egypt John Casson has warned.

His comments came as Abd el-Fattah’s aunt, the novelist Ahdaf Soueif, said there was a danger the British “are allowing themselves to be fobbed off with the excuses they have been given since last December when we started asking for consular visits”.

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‘Where is Liz Truss?’: sister of activist held in Cairo jail urges UK to act

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Sanaa Seif says UK government is not standing up for her brother Alaa Abd El Fattah, on hunger strike and facing death

The sister of a British dual national human rights activist held in a Cairo jail and on the 74th day of a hunger strike, on Tuesday urged the UK foreign secretary to publicly demand that Alaa Abd El Fattah is saved from death by being released.

Sanaa Seif was speaking at an event attended by Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the released British-Iranian dual national, and Gurpreet Singh, the brother of Jagtar Singh Johal – a Sikh activist from Dunbarton detained by the Indian police nearly five years ago. He has still not been charged and says a confession was extracted under torture.

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Britain must end its silence on Egyptian hunger striker Alaa Abd El Fattah, family demand

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‘Time is running out’ for blogger and activist who was given UK citizenship last year

Inside Alaa Abd El Fattah’s cell in the Wadi al-Natrun prison complex – once nicknamed “the valley of hell” for its location in the middle of the desert – fluorescent lights stay on 24 hours a day, along with CCTV to monitor his every move. Now 65 days into a hunger strike, the blogger and activist has become a symbol of resistance against Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi’s regime.

But despite becoming a British citizen last year, he is no closer to being released. His family fear that foreign secretary Liz Truss is failing to do enough to free him. “You would think that the moment he became a British citizen, something would change, not just because of the leverage of another citizenship but also the good relations between Egypt and the UK,” said activist Mona Seif, Abd El Fattah’s sister, who also acquired British citizenship last year.

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Egyptians seen in jail ‘torture’ videos charged with spreading fake news

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Public prosecutors’ claim that detainees inflicted injuries on themselves with a coin is ‘laughable’, says Human Rights Watch

Detainees seen in videos allegedly showing torture in a Cairo police station inflicted their injuries on themselves, according to Egyptian authorities, who have charged the prisoners with spreading “fake news”.

Up to 13 people detained in El-Salam First police station for unknown petty crimes made multiple videos that they say show the abuse they suffered at the hands of police officers and security forces.

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Egypt accused of widespread state-sanctioned killings of dissidents

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Analysis of alleged anti-terrorist shootouts reveals security forces routinely suppressing opposition, claims Human Rights Watch

Egyptian security forces engaged in an extended campaign of extrajudicial killings of detainees, routinely masked as shootouts with alleged terrorists, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

The report details what it alleges are a pattern of extrajudicial assassinations between 2015 and last year, a period in which the Egyptian interior ministry said publicly that 755 people were killed in alleged exchanges of fire with security forces, while naming just 141.

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Giulio Regeni’s last messages before his death in Egypt counter spy claims

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Facebook messages from the Italian student killed in Cairo in 2016 show his concerns about studying in the country

The Facebook messages written by the Cambridge student Giulio Regeni in the weeks leading up to his murder give the lie to any notion he was a spy or political agitator.

Even before he left England, Regeni was concerned about the risks he might face doing his thesis on trade unions in Egypt, a sensitive subject in the country.

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Biden accused of U-turn over Egypt’s human rights abuses

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Critics say US president’s realpolitik ignores Sisi regime’s ‘hostage-taking tactics’ against dissidents

“It’s a hostage negotiation and it has been all along,” said Sherif Mansour, describing the arrest of his cousin Reda Abdel-Rahman by Egyptian security forces last August as an attempt to intimidate Mansour into silence.

Abdel-Rahman has been imprisoned without trial for nine months. Mansour, an outspoken human rights advocate in Washington with the Committee to Protect Journalists, has since learned that he and his father are listed on the same charge sheet, all accused of joining a terrorist group and spreading “false news”.

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