Macron avoids ‘lecturing’ Egypt on rights, Sisi defends his record
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday it was not up to him to “lecture” Egypt on civil liberties, but told its visiting leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that strengthening human rights was in its interest.
Sisi, denying accusations by human rights groups that he had allowed his forces to use torture, told a Paris news conference: “We do not practice torture and ... we must be wary of all the information published by rights organisations.”
With both France and Egypt concerned by the political vacuum in Libya and the threat from jihadist groups in Egypt, the two countries have cultivated even closer economic and military ties during Sisi’s rise to power.
But rights organisations have accused France under Macron of turning a blind eye to what they say are increasing violations of freedoms by Sisi’s government as the 2018 presidential elections approach.
“I believe in the sovereignty of states, and therefore, just as I don’t accept being lectured on how to govern my country, I don’t lecture others,” Macron said at a joint news conference with Sisi in Paris following talks.
“My deeply held conviction is that it’s in President Sisi’s interest to accompany the defence and consolidation of human rights by the Egyptian state, in the context that only he can be the judge of,” the French president said.
During their 50-minute meeting, Macron brought up the issue of a dozen cases of alleged abuses of freedoms, in particular relating to Egyptian journalists and human rights activists, sources close to Macron said.
Sisi, replying to journalists’ questions, said he was responsible for 100 million Egyptians who lived in turbulent times and alongside people who followed “extremist thought” and did not like to coexist in peace. — Reuters