Roth: Egyptians living under the worst form of oppression under Al-Sisi

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Executive Director Kenneth Roth has said that during the rule of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who led last year’s military coup, Egypt has been witnessing the worst form of oppression in its modern history, Alamat Online news reported.

Roth reportedly posted a question on Twitter asking which reforms were made during Al-Sisi’s rule, before answering, “The worst crackdown in Egypt’s modern history.”

He then tweeted directly to the Egyptian authorities, “No, Egypt, no ‘misconceptions’ behind UNHRC criticisms of worst crackdown in recent history,” referring to Wednesday’s review of Egypt at the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, the results of which are set to be published on Friday.

According to the BBC, Keith Harper, the US ambassador to the UNHRC, said that Egypt had violated “freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association [and] deprived thousands of Egyptians of fair trial guarantees”. During the session the review catalogued the many violations.

However, Egypt’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hesham Badr rejected these claims, saying that they were based on “misconceptions”.