About 50 American and British parliamentarians urged US President Joe Biden in a public letter to discuss with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Saturday the
“vast architecture of repression”
in his country.
Joe Biden will take part in a summit of leaders of the Gulf monarchies in Saudi Arabia on Saturday which will also be attended by Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, whose country is one of the great regional allies of the United States but also the host of the COP27 scheduled for november.
“All eyes are on Egypt
,” pleads the letter signed in particular by the former candidates for the highest positions in Washington, Bernie Sanders, and in London, Jeremy Corbyn.
“Illegal travel bans”
“Use the levers you have with your Egyptian partners to immediately address the issue of illegal travel bans, frozen assets and pre-trial detention
,” the letter continued.
All these techniques, framed by law in Egypt, are nevertheless often used outside the time limits or legal frameworks, according to human rights defenders, in particular against figures seen as opponents of the regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, a former marshal who deposed his predecessor, the Islamist Mohamed
Morsi
, in a 2013 coup.
the international attention prison sentences would attract"
, accuses the letter of deputies and senators.
Currently, two pro-democracy figures are at the heart of all attention: the Egyptian-British Alaa Abdel Fattah, icon of the 2011 "revolution", detained since 2019 and on hunger strike for more than 100 days and Karim Ennarah , husband of British documentary filmmaker Jess Kelly, a member of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Egypt's most prominent human rights NGO.
The latter is free but like four other members or ex-members of the EIPR, he is forbidden to travel or to access his accounts and all live with a sword of Damocles over their heads: their name is now on the blacklist of
"terrorists"
and a return to prison is possible at any time.
Read alsoThe Egyptian street challenges President Sissi
"I call on Joe Biden to speak about my husband, who has been held up in Egypt for almost two years, preventing us from starting a life together in Britain, travel bans are breaking up families
," Jess Kelly said in a statement.
Regularly solicited, foreign capitals and their chancelleries in Cairo ensure that it is more effective to discuss these issues behind closed doors.
“Discussing these cases privately with President Sissi and his foreign minister has not yielded any of the results we hope for, the United States and Great Britain must act,”
respond the 55 signatories.