Al-Sisi's government: A regime desperate to survive

In his desperation to control the people of Egypt and prevent them rising up against him or posing a threat to his dominion, Pharaoh ordered the killing of all newborn males every other year. Similarly, in its desperation to control the people and prevent any form of dissent, the regime in Egypt today is quashing all forms of civil liberties and escalating its human rights abuses.

Since the military coup on July 3, 2013, there has been a continuous increase in human rights violations in Egypt. Abuses have not withered or halted over the past 17 months, they have intensified despite international recognition of them. The escalations are characteristic of a regime desperate to hold on to its power despite its obvious demise.

Commenting after the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), barrister Toby Cadman described the situation in Egypt today as a “classic anatomy of a dictatorship, being taken point by point, unfolding daily”. The extent of the human rights violations, he said, was such that you can go through “treaties article by article” and see these abuses “occurring consistently” in Egypt.

Indeed, Egypt was given 300 recommendations by the UNHRC by 121 member states to study following the UPR in Geneva, Switzerland, in November. Foremost in the recommendations are that all officials involved in torture and abuse must be brought to justice; an end must be put to the torture and ill-treatment of detainees and all claims of such treatment must be investigated. Other suggestions include an end to violence against women; the release of every individual arrested for practising their rights of freedom of speech and the immediate release of all individuals, including journalists, who defend human rights.

The return of a “police state”

Recent months have shown the Egyptian regime increasingly revealing its true colours, unapologetically demonstrating the extent of the brutality of the police state it wishes to rule.

It is now common practice in the “new Egypt” for neighbours and ordinary people who believe they are “serving their country” to doubt the loyalty of fellow citizens and report them to the police. This is reminiscent of the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser who set a precedent for the Arab world in the 1960s by creating a police state that brutally suppressed dissidents and instilled fear among its citizens.

In Egypt today, any space of freedom of expression that existed following the January 25, 2011, revolution is quickly narrowing. Media outlets owned by pro-Sisi businessmen have instilled a fear in people that anyone that dares to cast any doubt or criticise the status quo or question the competence of the president, the government, the Interior Ministry or the armed forces is automatically considered a supporter of terrorism.

In the hope of avoiding the destiny of countries such as Syria, Libya or Iraq, many Egyptians are desperately supporting this repressive regime. Many do not realise that they have surrendered to a tyrannical succumbed life in a despotic police state which can only but continue in its repressiveness, fuelled by the fear-induced submissiveness of its citizens. The state is slowly clawing back “the hard-earned freedoms gained after the January 2011 uprising” taking “the country back to its pre-January 25 revolutionary state”.

University grounds have become zones of conflict between security forces and students, instead of being grounds for thought, expression and development. Since the military coup in July 2013, 2,190 students have been arrested, including 400 in the first month of the current academic year; 211 students have been killed, including 22 on university grounds; and 677 students have been expelled.

Egypt has also seen an unprecedented attack against females with the first month of the academic year witnessing the arrest of 28 female students, including six cases of forced disappearance. Al-Azhar University girls’ section has seen security forces storm university grounds for the twenty-sixth time since October 11, with random arrests. On November 19, the grounds were stormed for the twenty-seventh time and 20 female students were arrested. Professors and students are arrested randomly and accused of being part of the Students Against the Coup group and part of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Precautionary arrests and death in detention

On November 9, a 21-year-old Egyptian student was arrested for being in possession of George Orwell’s Novel 1984. An Egyptian academic described the event as representing the “epitome of ignorance and backwardness.” Meanwhile, on November 16, 23 activists were sentenced to three years in jail for protesting against a law that outlawed protests.

Precautionary arrests are on the increase, with political detainees often kept in custody for months before being presented to the courts. This practice has been termed “precautionary detention”. Very often these are renewed for months.

The conditions in Egyptian detention centres are dire and more and more cases of deaths due to neglect are emerging. In the past week alone there have been four reported cases of deaths due to detainees being unable to attain the necessary medical help.

In the same week, a letter was leaked from a prison where 55-year-old engineer Salwa Hasanayn is being held. Arrested on January 8, Hasanayn suffered from acute pain however prison authorities denied her access to the necessary medical checks to ascertain the cause. Her health deteriorated until her appendix burst, which led to blood poisoning. The subsequent surgery left Hasanayn with heavy bleeding and in excruciating pain. Hasanayn is accused of writing anti-coup graffiti and resisting and attacking security forces.

A total of 52 individuals have died inside detention centres across Cairo and Giza since January 2014, according to the official Forensic Medicine Authority. A further 80 have died whilst in detention across Egyptian cities between July 2013 and January 2014, according to WikiThawra, an independent observatory that documents fatalities in prisons.

Militarisation of courts

This week, five Egyptian students were transferred to a military court on charges of rioting at a university. This comes weeks after a new law was passed allowing civilians to be tried in military courts on charges of damaging state property. Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s Middle East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson said: “This law represents another nail in the coffin of justice in Egypt.”

She continued: “It’s back to business as usual in Egypt. The Sisi government will clearly go to any length to crush domestic opposition, whether secular or Islamist.”

In another attempt by the government to use the overwhelming force of its security apparatus to confront what it sees as a threat to Egypt’s existence, the Egyptian Army with bulldozers and dynamite began demolishing houses and displacing residents to create a buffer zone to secure its border with Gaza. At the end of October, some 800 houses were destroyed in the crowded neighbourhoods of Rafah and over 10,000 residents displaced.

This came only weeks after reports that Al-Sisi had offered the Palestinian Authority (PA) Sinai as the area for a Palestinian state. This offer served the Israeli interests as it encouraged PA President Mahmoud Abbas to relinquish demands that Tel Aviv withdraw from areas it occupied since 1967.

Where is the international community?

Under the guise of the supposed war on terrorism which Al-Sisi’s government is claiming to be fighting, the coup regime has perpetrated, and continues to perpetrate, unprecedented atrocities and deny civil liberties to Egyptian citizens.

The international community has yet to unite in condemnation of the perpetrators of these atrocities, leaving Al-Sisi to apply stricter controls on his people. “There is an urgent need for the international community to take action, and ensure accountability for human rights abuses,” barrister Toby Cadman said.

To what lengths will the Egyptian coup regime go to to hold on to its reign of power and control? How long can such a desperate regime last? What will be the damage? How many years will it take to reverse the damage caused by this brutal regime that knows no mercy nor any limits?

There have been several advocacies to raise awareness of the despicable atrocities happening in Egypt, and to what extent the Egyptian coup regime has been going to repress its people and suppress the most basic of civil rights. However, all attempts seem to fall on deaf ears.

How far does the regime have to go before it receives condemnation from the UK and the US? Does the tally of human rights violations not suffice for western governments to change their policy on Egypt? Does the barbaric dictatorial system, through which nearly 90 million people are controlled, abused and killed, not deserve any kind of reprimand, let alone the severing of all economic and political ties? Indeed, how can a military regime and a police state be allowed to exist?

What we can be sure of is that a military state is unacceptable and the free Egyptian people will continue in their revolt until this brutal regime is quashed and they attain their freedoms and are allowed to live a dignified life. Whether or not the West give their support and alter their policies towards this despotic regime, Egyptians will not wait for them to act.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.