EGYPT Two employees arrested after diplomats’ visit

AN EGYPTIAN rights group said on Wednesday that security forces arrested two of its employees, the latest in a years-long crackdown on dissent and rights advocates by the government.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said Karim Ennarah, director of criminal justice at the group, was arrested Wednesday while on vacation in the Red Sea resort of Dahab in South Sinai. His whereabouts were unknown, the group said.

An Egyptian media officer said he could not immediately comment on the issue.

Ennarah’s arrest came three days after security forces detained Mohamed Basheer, the rights group’s administrative director, in Cairo following a visit by Western diplomats to the group earlier this month.

The November 3 meeting included envoys from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, among others, and they discussed ways to improve Egypt’s human-rights record, according to the group.

Prosecutors ordered Basheer to remain in custody for 15 days pending an investigation into accusations of joining a terrorist group and disseminating false news “that undermines public security and harming national interest,” according to the group.

France’s foreign ministr y on Tuesday voiced its “deep concern” over Basheer’s arrest. “France maintains a frank, exacting dialogue with Egypt on human-rights issues, including individual cases,” it said in a statement.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez, on Wednesday, said Egypt rejects the French statement as “an interference in Egypt’s internal affairs”. He said i n a statement that the EIPR’s work is illegitimate as it is registered as a firm not a nongovernmental organisation. He didn’t elaborate.

Amnesty International condemned the arrests as “a heavy blow against t he legitimate work of human rights

defenders. The London-based group called for the release of EIPR’s employees and an end to Egypt’s “reprisals” against right groups and advocates.

The arrests were the latest in a years-long crackdown by the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on dissent. The crackdown, the heaviest in Egypt’s modern history, has targeted not only Islamist political opponents, but also secular pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics.