HRW: Gulf pays more $6b to supress Egyptian opposition

Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth has said that latest support of Gulf States to Egypt was channelled to “suppress dissent.”

Roth tweeted on Thursday: “It’s expensive running a police state: Gulf States give Sisi [Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi] another $6B to suppress dissent.”

“Today…$2 billion from each state came into the country’s foreign exchange holdings,” governor of Egyptian Central Bank Hisham Ramez told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“The interest on the deposits is 2.5 per cent and maturities range from three to five years,” Ramez said

Reuters said that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Oman jointly pledged $12.5 billion in aid, investments and central bank deposits at a March investment conference in Egypt’s resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.