Two American NGOs filed a complaint on Monday in Paris against French and Egyptian officials of a French anti-terrorist operation in Egypt which would have been used for internal repression, we learned from a source familiar with the matter.
In detail, the action of the two NGOs, Egyptians Abroad for Democracy and Codepink, against X and filed in the crimes against humanity section of the Paris judicial court, targets "
crimes against humanity and torture having been committed by Egyptian officials
" and "
complicity in crimes against humanity by French officials
", for facts that would date from 2016 to 2019.
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According to information from the investigative media Disclose dating from November 2021, the French intelligence mission "
Sirli
", started in February 2016 for the benefit of Egypt in the name of the fight against terrorism, was hijacked by the Egyptian State which s The information collected was used to carry out airstrikes on vehicles of suspected smugglers on the Egyptian-Libyan border.
Despite the concerns and alerts of some French officials about the excesses of the operation, the French authorities would not have questioned the mission, according to Disclose citing secret documents.
The French Ministry of the Armed Forces filed a complaint for "
violation of national defense secrecy
" and the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation.
At the time, the spokesperson for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Hervé Grandjean indicated that an "
internal investigation
" had been launched within the Armies "
to verify that the rules have been applied
" by the Egyptian partners.
For the plaintiffs, “
the geolocation information collected by France made possible the summary bombardment by the Egyptian forces of hundreds of vehicles, thus killing and injuring several hundred civilians, without any other form of trial or more advanced verifications.
»
“
Despite (the) warnings
” from “
French operators
” to “
their hierarchy
”, “
Operation Sirli was maintained
”, denounce the complainants.
The plaintiffs' lawyer, Me Louise Dumas, hopes that the crimes against humanity division "
will be able to seize this opportunity to put an end to impunity for crimes committed by the Egyptian regime, including crimes of torture, with the assistance from French players, all within the opaque framework of arms contracts.
Confidential defense cannot be the systematic excuse for impunity.
»
For Mohamed Ismail, director of Egyptians Abroad for Democracy, the complaint aims to "
combat the impunity of the regime
" of Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, in power since 2013.
Three UN special rapporteurs were seized in parallel.
