Rights group finds ‘system’ of torture
CAIRO: An international rights group says Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has given a “green light” to systemic torture inside detention facilities, allowing officers to act with “almost total impunity”.
In a 63-page report released yesterday, Human Rights Watch says Mr Sissi, a US ally who was warmly received at the White House earlier this year, is pursuing stability “at any cost”, and has allowed the widespread torture of detainees despite it being outlawed by the Egyptian constitution.
Mr Sissi “has effectively given police and National Security officers a green light to use torture whenever they please”, said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at the New York-based group. “Impunity for the systematic use of torture has left citizens with no hope for justice.”
The allegations, t he group said, amounted to crimes against humanity.
Most of the detainees are alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood group, which rose to power after the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak but has been the target of a sweeping crackdown since the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013.
Human Rights Watch said Egypt arrested or charged about 60,000 people in the two years after Mohammed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader who became Egypt’s first freely elected president, was overthrown following a divisive year in power. Hundreds have gone missing in what appear to be forced disappearances, and hundreds of others have received preliminary death sentences.
Widespread torture in a perceived climate of impunity was one of the main grievances behind the uprising that toppled Mr Mubarak.
Mr Stork warned that “allowing the security services to commit this heinous crime across the country invites another cycle of unrest”.
President Donald Trump has hailed Mr Sissi as an ally against terrorism, but last month the United States cut or delayed nearly US$300 million (about 10 billion baht) in military and economic aid, part of an estimated $1.3 billion a year the US has given Egypt since it made peace with Israel in 1979.