Sisi supporters slam EU statement on Egypt

A statement by the European Union at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which criticised the human rights situation under the military government, has angered supporters of the current Egyptian President and ex-army chief Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi.

The June 30 forces and Sisi supporters have called for protests in front of European embassies in Cairo against what they considered to be foreign meddling in Egyptian affairs. According to Yasser Al-Qadi, the spokesman of the pro-Sisi Union of Egyptian Representatives, the EU statement is “flagrant intervention in Egyptian affairs and disrespects Egyptian sovereignty”.

Al-Qadi said that the “June 30 forces” will stage protests at EU embassies on Sunday to express their rejection of the “shameful” EU statement.

“This is an American statement inked with European hypocrisy after the failure of John Kerry and Jean-Yves Le Drian to convince president Al-Sisi to take part in the alleged war on the Islamic State (ISIS) during their latest visit to Egypt,” he added.

The secretary general of the Salafist Al-Nour Party, Galal Al-Morra, accused the EU of double-standards and of neglecting the human rights violations in Syria, Libya and Iraq.

“The Egyptian state is passing through a critical stage in its history and is beset by conspiracies that seek to shake its structure and fuel unrest and chaos,” Al-Morra said.

Pro-Sisi judge Ahmed Al-Fadaly criticised the EU statement as “lacking objectivity and civility, and aiming at pressuring Egypt to take part in the so-called war on ISIS, which has been created by the US,” adding that the objective of these pressures is “to involve the Egyptian army in the war in order to fragment it”. Al-Fadaly accused the EU and US of being “terror sponsoring countries,” stressing that Egyptian human rights record is “better than the EU itself”.

During the 27th session of the UNHRC on Tuesday, the EU voiced its “concern” towards the “deteriorating human rights situation in Egypt”. It slammed “indiscriminate detentions and disproportionate sentencing – including the death penalty.”

Moreover, the statement added that the EU is “concerned with reports of torture in detention centres and sexual assaults on female detainees.”