Egypt ‘more dangerous’ than ever for gov’t critics, rights group says

International rights group Amnesty International says that an intensified crackdown on dissent in Egypt made the country “more dangerous” than ever for peaceful critics of the government.

The statement from the group comes ahead of the eighth anniversary of the January 25, 2011 uprising which led to the ouster of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Amnesty says Egyptian authorities had arrested at least 113 people during 2018 for “peacefully expressing their views.”

“Today it is more dangerous to openly criticize the government in Egypt than at any other time in the country’s recent history,” says Najia Bounaim, the group’s North Africa Campaigns Director.

Amnesty said the space for dissent “is being crushed out of existence.”

“Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s administration, Egypt has been converted into an open-air prison for critics,” it says.

The Egyptian leader recently denied in an interview with CBS that the country holds any political prisoners.

Human rights groups have regularly criticized Sisi’s government for cracking down on secular and left-wing activists, as well as the Islamist supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

A growing number of activists have been detained in Egypt in recent months.

— AFP