Amnesty slams Sisi's Egypt as ‘open-air prison’ for critics, urges end to crackdown on dissent
Amnesty International warns that Egyptians are facing an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's administration, saying the North African state has today turned into an "open-air prison" for dissidents.
Under the Sisi administration, "Egypt has been converted into an open-air prison for critics," Amnesty said in a statement on Thursday, on the eve of the country's National Police Day, adding, "The space for dissent "is being crushed out of existence."
January 25 also marks the start of the 2011 revolution, which led to the ouster of former dictator, Hosni Mubarak.
"Today, it is more dangerous to openly criticize the government in Egypt than at any other time in the country's recent history," Najia Bounaim, Amnesty's North Africa Campaigns director said.
Amnesty further said Egyptian authorities had arrested at least 113 people in the course of 2018 for "peacefully expressing their views."
As army chief, Sisi led a military coup against the country’s first-ever democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi -- which had come to power following Mubarak's ouster -- and overthrew him on July 3, 2013.
Human rights groups have regularly criticized Sisi's government for cracking down on opposition activists and supporters of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has been banned in the country.
They say the army’s crackdown on the Brotherhood and its supporters has resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 people. About 22,000 others have been arrested, including more than 200 people who have been sentenced to death in mass trials.
Amnesty further said, “Over the past year, people who dared to criticize the government have been arrested and sent to prison, often held in solitary confinement or subjected to enforced disappearances simply for posting their opinions on social media, giving media interviews, denouncing sexual harassment and even for supporting certain football clubs. In some cases, those arrested had done nothing at all."
It also launched an online campaign dubbed "Egypt: Open air prison for critics" in an effort to pile pressure on the Cairo administration to end the crackdown on dissent.
Sisi -- who was re-elected in March 2018 for a second four-year term in the absence of any serious competition -- recently denied in an interview with CBS that the country held any political prisoners.
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