PRESIDENT PRAISES 2011 UPRISING AMID HEIGHTENED SECURITY IN CAIRO

Egypt’s president paid tribute on Sunday to the country’s 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, saying that protesters killed during the 18- day revolt had sought to revive “noble principles” and found a “new Egypt.”

President Abdel- Fattah el- Sissi’s praise of the uprising, delivered via a televised speech on the eve of its fifth anniversary, followed a recent spate of arrests and a heightened security presence in the capital Cairo that reflected his government’s resolve that the occasion will not be marked by popular demonstrations — or militant attacks.

They also came just one day after el- Sissi, a soldier-turned-politician who won office in 2014 following a landslide election victory, praised the country’s police and vowed a firm response to any threat to the country’s stability. His nod to the police ran against growing complaints by rights activists that the force has returned to Mubarak-era practices like torture, random arrests and, more recently, forced disappearances.

Police brutality was among the complaints that drove Egyptians to take part in the 2011 uprising. El-Sissi said the 2011 uprising had deviated from its course and was forcibly hijacked for “personal gains and narrow interests.” That was a thinly veiled reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been banned and declared a terror group after el-Sissi, as military chief, led the ouster in July 2013 of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood.