Opposition groups called for al-Sisi’s resignation in Egypt to seek his release

09/26/2020 Science


At least one protester was killed in Egypt on Friday, with activists saying thousands of people had vandalized police in protest against the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for a sixth day.

Rare protests by those depicted as “angry Fridays” – after noon prayers in Egyptian cities, towns and rural areas, took place in the capital, Cairo and the governors of Giza, Demetta and the Nile Delta and Luxor. In southern Egypt.

In a video clip circulating on social media, protesters in Cairo’s Helwan neighborhood chanted: “Speak to him out loud and don’t be afraid, al-Sisi is about to leave,” while another showed tires burning to block roads in Giza. In the third clip, dozens of protesters and rioters in a neighborhood of the city of Demitta were robbed by police before police charged the crowd, causing people to scatter in all directions.

The purpose of a video in the village of Kafar Saad in Damitta shows the police firing on protesters as they tried to disperse them.

Sami Wagdi Bashir, 25, was killed during a protest, according to Al-Mawfa Al-Masri, a Facebook page run by Egyptian activists in the Giza governor’s village of Al-Blida. The Najda human rights group said three others were injured in the same shooting.

Mohammed Ali, an opposition figure in the country and a former military contractor living in exile, sent his condolences to Bashir’s family.

Protesters in some areas continued to protest late into the night, according to videos posted online by activists.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the videos.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported, citing security sources, that several people had been arrested.

The latest wave of anti-government rallies began with Al-Sisi’s decision to demolish what he called illegal construction across the country. Many of the affected neighbors have some of the country’s poorest communities, many of whom are already suffering from a sick economy, exacerbated by the coronavirus lockdown. The protests also took place a year after a limited protest movement by Ali, who accused the government of spending money on noble construction projects.

Protests last year sparked widespread outcry, with at least 4,000 people arrested, according to Amnesty International.

Protests have become rare in Egypt under al-Sisi, who banned unauthorized demonstrations after the military ousted then-President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Ahead of Friday’s protests, Ali called on Egyptians to take to the streets again in a video posted on Facebook, saying: “This is our chance to liberate our country.”

Dalia Fehmi, an associate professor of political science at Long Island University in the United States, said the ongoing protests were a major part of the economic crisis.

Noting that 100 percent of Egypt’s millions of people live on the brink of poverty, he told Al Jazeera: “It’s a volatile situation. Add to that the social and political barriers … People were arrested on terrorism charges because they were protesting on the street. “

This week, as small and sporadic protests began in most poor and rural provinces, security forces again sabotaged, detaining at least 150 people linked to the “terrorist” organization, spreading false news and abusing social media, on charges of Khalid Ali. , A lawyer working with detainees, said in a post on Facebook.

The juvenile detention center by the Beldi Center for Rights and Freedoms includes 14 minors, the youngest being 14 years old, he said on Facebook.

More arrest reports were received on Friday. The APA quoted unnamed security officials as saying at least 10 people were arrested in the village of Shata in Damietta and four others were arrested in the southern city of Luxor.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry has not publicly acknowledged the arrests.

U.S. Sahar Aziz, a law professor at Rutgers University in Ma, said it was important to note that the current protests were not carried out by any opposition group.

“They are not organized because the crackdown on any kind of collective activity has been very serious. You can’t collect on Facebook, you can’t protest – there are laws against it. They make preventive detentions and sometimes kidnappings. So the signal and the message is very clear – if you try to rally or protest against the government or raise your voice against it, the government will take strict action, ”he told Al Jazeera.

“The Sisi regime has made it clear that it has a zero-tolerance policy for protests and dissent. We should expect more from him.

“The real question is will the Egyptians be willing to go out and protest and face death? In other words, their lives are so miserable that in order to protest, they have to face the real possibility of being killed or imprisoned for life, or they will continue and suffer in a very dire economic situation. ”

Meanwhile, pro-government news outlets in Egypt on Friday flooded their websites with images of empty streets and traffic circles across the country “without any demonstrations”.

State-run media have accused the banned Muslim Brotherhood of calling Morsi a “terrorist organization” that has exaggerated the vote and “chaoticized” the vote to undermine the country’s stability.

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