Egypt braces for fresh protests as Sissi says ‘no reason for concern’
Rights groups say nearly 2,000 arrested in week-long crackdown on demonstrators, activists and academics decrying economic hardship and government corruption
CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt braced Friday for a second weekend of protests, as anger stemming from economic hardship and alleged top-level corruption threatens to eclipse a long-standing ban on street rallies despite an intensifying crackdown.
Last week’s open defiance of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi — triggered by viral videos from exiled Egyptian businessman Mohamed Aly — has surprised observers in a country where opposition of all stripes has been severely curtailed.
Sissi on Friday dismissed a call for a second weekend of protests as “no reason for concern.”
Elected president in 2014 after pushing predecessor Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood from power the previous year, Sissi is seen by many as one of the most authoritarian figures in the Middle East.
Construction magnate Aly has called for a “million-man march” and a “people’s revolution” to unseat the uncompromising head of state.
But after he arrived home from the UN General Assembly in New York, Sissi insisted there was no cause for alarm.
“There are no reasons for concern. Egypt is a strong country thanks to Egyptians,” he told reporters with a smile. “The case does not deserve all” this attention, Sissi said. “It is an attempt to create an image that is absolutely not real.”
Road blocks prevented traffic from entering Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday morning, AFP journalists said, although it was still possible to move into the area on foot.
Aly accuses Sissi of building lavish palaces while taxpayers grapple with the impact of austerity under an IMF loan program totaling $12 billion.
In recent days, security has been visibly stepped up, especially in Tahrir Square — the epicenter of the 2011 popular revolt that toppled long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
That iconic location was key to last week’s demonstrations, which broke out after a football match with protesters chanting “leave, Sissi!” and accusing him of heading a “military regime.”
Alongside beefing up their presence on the streets, the security forces have also detained people they suspect of being key influencers of unrest — journalists, human rights activists and lawyers.
‘Wrong place, wrong time’
Human Rights Watch said Friday that nearly 2,000 people had been arrested over the past week, in what could be the biggest crackdown since 2013.
“Lawyers for detainees have posted on their social media pages several accounts of security forces arbitrarily arresting many people merely for being in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ or possessing critical content on their phones,” the rights group said.
In the first official acknowledgement of the protests, the attorney general’s office said “not more than 1,000 protesters” had been questioned by prosecutors.
It said prosecutors had orders to “inspect the social media accounts and pages of those detained.”
Analysts said they expected any further protests to meet a tough response as Sissi seeks to preserve his security credentials.
“Sissi has made it clear he intends to stay in power for quite some time -– and protests will not change that calculus for him,” said H.A Hellyer, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
The president “appears… convinced that any protests that go beyond a certain point would be destructive not only to his presidency, but the state more generally,” he told AFP.
Further protests are therefore likely to be met with stiff resistance, Hellyer added.
HRW called on Egypt’s Western allies to suspend their military assistance until the government ceases its “gross violations of international law.”
“World leaders should recognize that providing security and military assistance to abusive forces won’t bring stability to Egypt, and that what’s needed instead is a government that respects the rights and freedoms of the Egyptian people,” said its Middle East and North Africa director, Sarah Leah Whitson.
In August 2013, just over a month after Sissi toppled Morsi, police dispersed two camps full of supporters of the Islamist leader in Cairo, killing about 800 people in clashes, according to official figures.
The government named the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist organization” later that year, but the crackdown on opposition has extended to secular organisations and rights activists.
On Thursday, Aly posted a one-minute missive which included extracts from previous videos and footage from riots in 2011 and later, juxtaposed against declarations by Sissi.
But while the exiled critic’s videos have gained huge traction — shared millions of times online — they have provoked fervent counter-attacks from the president’s backers, using the hashtags #longliveSissi and #theywantchaos.
For those supporters, Sissi’s six years at the helm — including five as president — have shown him to be a bulwark against the insecurity and political disintegration unleashed by the Arab Spring elsewhere, notably in Libya and Syria.
