U.S. memo takes Egypt to task on human rights

UNITED NATIONS — Egypt is failing to protect free speech and minority groups, investigate abuses by its forces or grant U.S. monitors access to the conflict-ridden Sinai Peninsula, according to a report from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The United States’ concerns were detailed in a State Department memorandum to Congress. The memo was legally required for the Trump administration to continue providing certain U.S. aid to Egypt despite that country’s failure to meet several conditions on good governance.

“The overall human rights climate in Egypt continues to deteriorate,” the memo says. “There is a continuing problem with arbitrary arrests, detentions, disappearances. There are reports of extrajudicial killings. There are numerous allegations of torture and deaths in detention.”

Last month, the Trump administration cut nearly $100 million in military and economic aid to Egypt, a key counterterrorism partner that has repeatedly drawn U.S. scrutiny over its human-rights record. But the administration said Egypt will still receive almost $200 million more in military financing, on a delayed basis, if it makes improvements, including easing tight restrictions on civic groups.

Although the U.S. determined it couldn’t certify that Egypt was meeting the conditions to receive the $200 million, the law allows Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to waive those conditions if he determines it’s in the U.S.’ national security interests to provide the funds anyway. But the law requires a detailed “memorandum of justification” outlining how Egypt is falling short.

Had Tillerson not signed a waiver, the money would have been returned to the Treasury by Sept. 30 — the end of the current fiscal year.

Tillerson sent the memo to Congress on Aug. 22, the same day the funding decision was announced, and a copy was later obtained by The Associated Press. The State Department has declined to make the memo public, despite requests from the media and human-rights groups.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi did not directly address global critiques of his country’s rights record in his speech to the United Nations on Tuesday. But the Egyptian leader said his country was working to empower its people economically despite being “encircled by the most dangerous crises in the world.”

El-Sissi planned to meet with Trump on Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Another U.S. concern is the lack of access Egypt has granted American officials in northern Sinai, where el-Sissi is grappling with an insurgency by Islamic militants. Egyptian authorities have barred journalists and most others from traveling there, leaving news outlets to rely entirely on statements by police or the military spokesman.

The report said Egypt has only allowed U.S. officials to visit development projects near the Suez Canal and certain facilities used by an international observer force. Stephen McInerney, who runs the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy, said that raises questions about whether the U.S. can legally keep providing military aid and equipment. Under the terms of the aid, the U.S. must be able to monitor how money and weapons transferred to foreign governments are used.

“The U.S. administration deserves credit for acknowledging in this report the brutal reality of escalating human-rights abuses by the Egyptian state,” McInerney said.

In the report, the U.S. said Cairo is failing to meet five criteria laid out in the annual spending bill covering foreign aid. The memo cited specific issues, including the arrest of more than 30 members of opposition parties since May. In that same period, the report said, the Egyptians have blocked more than 100 online media outlets, frozen assets of activists and failed to provide due process for political detainees.

“Arrests often occur without warrants or judicial orders,” the report said. “Conditions in prisons and detention centers are harsh due to overcrowding, physical abuse, inadequate medical care, and poor ventilation.”

The memo also criticizes Egypt for granting “impunity” to its police and security forces despite reports of “arbitrary killings” of people in custody. And the report faults el-Sissi for signing a law in May that’s viewed as a crackdown on nongovernmental groups.

The State Department didn’t say why it has declined to make the report public. After the AP obtained a copy, a State Department official said the U.S. had determined that increased security cooperation with Egypt was important to U.S. national security despite “serious concerns regarding human rights and governance in Egypt.” The official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

Egypt receives about $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid each year, second only to Israel.