Preventive interrogations by the military justice, searched telephones or closed cafes, the Egyptian police are increasing, according to human rights defenders, the repressive measures in the face of a mysterious call to demonstrate in the middle of COP27 which will bring together the leaders of the planet in the country.
It all started, says lawyer Khaled Ali, a figure in human rights in the country, “more than ten days ago”, when the keyword “Manifeste_le_11 / 11” appeared on Twitter, the day the American president Joe Biden in particular will take part in COP27 and will address its tens of thousands of participants.
Since then, “the military prosecutor’s office has been questioning people in different provinces almost every day,” the former left-wing presidential candidate wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
On November 11, no one knows what might happen in a country where protesting is against the law.
But for the authorities, who at that time will organize the UN climate conference in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at the other end of the country, there is no question that social discontent will take over the streets. .
Severe economic crisis
Inflation is over 15% and the pound has lost half its value this year. The country has more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience and any form of opposition is muzzled while the independent press is reduced to a trickle.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said it himself recently: “I tell you from the bottom of my heart, someone who works for less than 10,000 pounds a month cannot live” in Egypt, where, according to official figures, a third of the inhabitants live with less than 2200 pounds per month, or 125 Canadian dollars.
To denounce all this, opponents have already attempted a “dress rehearsal”: calls to demonstrate under the keyword “after_the_match” urged Egyptians to march after the Cairo clasico which pitted al-Ahly against Zamalek on Friday evening.
No meeting place had been given, but all eyes turned to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the 2011 “revolution” that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
In 2019, it was after a clasico that very rare demonstrations took place, at the call of a sulphurous businessman, Mohamed Ali.
By the afternoon, several cafes where the matches are usually broadcast, near Tahrir and elsewhere, had lowered their curtains. Some owners told AFP that they were forced to do so by the police.
But around the main square in the city center, at the final whistle of the match, the police deployment was impressive with many streets blocked by police officers – in uniform or in civilian clothes – without any demonstrators on the horizon.
Despite everything, for days, in the center of Cairo, “passersby have been arrested and their phones searched”, reports lawyer Mahienour al-Masry, who defends many opponents.
“Their social media pages are also inspected and some are arrested if they are suspected of being politically active,” adds human rights NGO WeRecord.
Presidential of 2024
” Why ? And under what law? “, writes Me al-Masry on Twitter. “And all this happens when we are told of a national dialogue and a new republic where all opinions have the right of citizenship,” she adds.
Because since the summer, the authorities have been preparing the opening of a national dialogue to which the opposition is invited. Its secretariat has already met a dozen times but its opening has not yet been announced.
On Friday, a journalist in exile in Turkey, Hossam Elghamry, was arrested by Turkish security forces, reports Amnesty International.
Shortly before, he shared a tweet “Dress rehearsal today” followed by the keyword “after_the_match”. Some local Egyptian media reported the information, ensuring that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a brotherhood banned in Egypt since Mr. Sisi overthrew his predecessor from his ranks in 2013.
If Amnesty feared “a possible deportation to Egypt”, the man has since been released, according to his relatives.
And the calls do not come only from the Islamist opposition.
On October 19, to everyone’s surprise, the politician Mohammed Anwar al-Sadat, who managed to free many political detainees thanks to his interpersonal skills within the regime itself, published a letter.
Mr. Sissi’s greatest success, he said, would be “not to run for president in 2024 and to be content with all the great achievements already made”.