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The Arab Parliament considered the decision of the European Union as an “interference” in the affairs of Egypt (file photo)
The Arab Parliament and the Egyptian Senate condemned a decision of the European Parliament on the human rights situation in Egypt.
On Friday, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution criticizing “the deterioration of the human rights situation in Egypt” and calling for a “thorough and comprehensive review of the European Union’s relations with Egypt.”
Recently, there was criticism inside and outside Egypt following the arrest of 3 members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. All three have been released pending trial.
What was said in the European decision?
The decision condemned the failure of European member states to prevent the export of any equipment or tools that could be used in “repressive” operations in Egypt.
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The decision also clearly addressed the issue of the detention of members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, one of Egypt’s leading independent human rights societies, and emphasized its condemnation of this step.
The resolution urged Egypt to abide by international resolutions that allow detainees to communicate with their lawyers and families, and which also stipulate that any state must investigate allegations of ill-treatment or torture within places of detention.
The decision renewed the call for the need to find the truth in the assassination of Italian investigator Giulio Regeni in Cairo some five years ago, highlighting that the responsibility of searching for the perpetrators also rests with the European Union.
Egypt announced late last month that it would temporarily close the investigation into Regeni’s death. The Egyptian prosecutor said his killer was still unknown, while the Italian prosecutor accused four Egyptian security men of being involved in the murder and torture of the investigator.
How did you answer?
The president of the Arab Parliament, Adel Al-Asoumi, announced in a statement that he rejected the European decision.
Al-Asoumi considered the decision to represent flagrant interference in Egypt’s internal affairs and a continuation of an unacceptable approach to similar decisions issued by the European Parliament regarding human rights in several Arab countries.
The statement said the decision includes “inaccuracies and false accusations based on suspicious reports and unfounded false information.”
Al-Asoumi also called on the European Parliament to review its position, to “respect the sovereignty” of Egypt and to “stay away from politicizing human rights issues and not use them as an excuse to interfere in its internal affairs.”
How did the Egyptian reaction come about?
The Egyptian Senate, the upper house of Parliament, rejected the decision, saying that “using the human rights file as a pretext to interfere in internal affairs is a matter incompatible with international conventions and Egypt’s sovereignty over its lands.”
The council stressed, in a statement, that all the defendants referred to by the European Union “are convicted of committing crimes punishable by Egyptian law as other punitive laws in countries around the world, and are tried by legal procedures that others are tried. ”
This came after a similar rejection by the Egyptian Parliament, which in a statement criticized the European decision “of contradictory fallacies and the Egyptian interior.”
The House of Representatives considered that the European decision is “politicized and entails an unbalanced approach, unacceptable and does not conform to the Egyptian-European strategic partnership”.
The House of Representatives called on the European Parliament “not to install itself as Egypt’s guardian and to keep the European Parliament from politicizing human rights issues for political or electoral purposes.
