With ideas of mass protests in the air, opposition figures in Egypt have been arrested. Experts told DW that the president of Sisi “is extremely worried” about a new uprising.
Egyptian soldiers block the streets of Cairo amid protests in 2013.The Egyptian authorities launched a new campaign this week targeting activists and prominent opposition figures. On Thursday (23.08.2018), the former ambassador and decorated war hero Masoum Marzouq and six others were arrested on charges related to terrorism.
Earlier this month, Marzouq turned to Facebook to request a referendum on the mandate of Egyptian President Abdelfatah al Sisi. Marzouq urged the authorities to obey the call and organize a referendum or otherwise face massive protests on August 31 in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 2011 uprising.
According to Marzouq’s proposal, the Egyptians would have the opportunity to vote yes or no to the question: Do you accept the continuation in power of the current regime?
In his plea against “oppression”, Marzouq presented a road map in case the Egyptians voted against the Sisi, proposing the establishment of a transitional government that assumes power for three years and the end of the mandates of the president and Parliament.
“People are not really ready”
But Koert Debeuf, director of the European section of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (Timep), told DW that although Marzouq’s proposal was ambitious, he received very little attention from the public, “showing that people are not really ready. ”
“Even though life is getting harder and harder for people and they are upset and disappointed with al Sisi, that does not mean they are going to take to the streets to change that,” said Debeuf.
In 2011, more than one million Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo to protest against the government of former president and longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, which resulted in his eventual expulsion from the hands of the military.
Two and a half years later, General al Sisi led a military coup against the first democratically elected president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, an action supported by massive protests against the government.
Debeuf told DW that the government’s crackdown on critical voices was part of al Sisi’s strategy to prevent another uprising against the state.
“Al Sisi is extremely concerned that another Arab Spring will occur,” said Debeuf. “Then, all those who are critical are in one way or another simply imprisoned.”
Al Sisi has won two presidential elections, but critics say they were marked by irregularities.New “terrorists” from Egypt?
However, not everyone sees the campaign targeting activists and opposition figures as a problem. Mahmoud Ibrahim, director of the Federal Center for Studies, based in Egypt, told DW that the calls for a referendum on the Sisi government amounted to subversion.
Ibrahim said such appeals were virtually “attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the regime and a blow against the constitution.” He also accused the Muslim Brotherhood, which was classified as a terrorist group after the coup d’état of al Sisi in 2013, of being involved in the calls.
Marzouq and the other six imprisoned activists were accused of “receiving funds for terrorist purposes and participating in a criminal agreement with the intent to commit terrorist crimes,” according to Egyptian independent media Mada Masr.
For his part, the lawyer and Egyptian human rights lawyer Ziad al Alimi told DW that although many activists had been targeted by anti-terrorist laws under the al Sisi government, their case files never named a group, its nature or how it was intended to commit an act of terrorism.
“There are people accused of joining a terrorist group in prison for a year or more and nobody even knows the name of this group,” Alimi told DW.
“Prosecute peaceful critics”
Since the rise of the Sisi to power, human rights have been trampled on by repressive measures directed against activists and dissidents, according to groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International.
“While Egypt faces security threats, the government of President Abdelfatah al-Sisi has cynically exploited these threats as a front for prosecuting peaceful critics and reviving the infamous state security tribunals of Mubarak’s day,” said Nadim Houry, director of HRW counterterrorism, in a statement in July.
“Egypt is proud to present itself as a key international actor in the fight against terrorism, but its domestic record shows that it is fighting against peaceful critics and dissidents under the facade of countering ‘terrorism’.”
Last month, the United Kingdom updated its travel recommendations for Egypt to warn its citizens about the use of social media to criticize or share critical comments “about the president or the security forces”, saying that “in some cases, derogatory comments have led to convictions. ”
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