Egypt's three black years

It is mistaken to mark just one year since the leader of the military coup took the reins of power in Egypt. This man has been actually been ruling Egypt since he staged his bloody coup on 3 July, 2013. He is the man who read the military statement and appointed the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, as the interim president after kidnapping the elected President, Dr Mohamed Morsi, and holding him in an undisclosed location. He did so in order to rule Egypt, but from behind the scenes using his puppet, Mansour. He governed and issued decisions and laws with his puppet signing them off and doing nothing more.

There is a lot of evidence for this, of which the Exercise of Political Rights Law and parliamentary elections are the best example. After Al-Sisi’s puppet passed the law and the coup leader was officially elected as the Egyptian president by means of a rigged election, Adly resumed his position as head of the Supreme Constitutional Court and the law was challenged. It was referred to the Constitutional Court, which ruled that it was unconstitutional. Verified leaks explained how the laws were prepared by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and Al-Sisi’s Assistant Defence Minister for Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Mamdouh Shahin.

The leaks also showed how cases were fabricated against the legitimate President Morsi and how Egypt was being governed by a gang led by the coup leader, who dragged Egypt into a quagmire of incitement and tore apart its social fabric, pushing the country towards a civil war that would save him from his miserable failure to make any tangible achievements benefiting the Egyptian people. Living conditions have worsened since Al-Sisi officially took control of the country, including extreme inflation, the withdrawal of energy subsidies and the lack of security and stability.

After he requested a mandate to combat “terrorism”, Al-Sisi created the terrorism by means of his security forces. Just like any other fascist regime whose existence stems from its own violence, he fought his own people under this umbrella, killing and wounding thousands in the streets, their homes and in prisons. He has destroyed and demolished homes and mosques in Sinai, and destroyed land and uprooted olive trees in order to establish a buffer zone there to reassure the Zionist enemy in Israel. This same enemy put him in power in order to ensure its safety and security and in order to execute a specific agenda. One Israeli leader even said that the coup in Egypt was a gift from the sky, while another said that although Hosni Mubarak was a strategic treasure for Israel, he did not do for Israel was Al-Sisi has done. The protection of Israel is one of the coup leader’s achievements which he submitted in his credentials to the West.

Another Al-Sisi achievement is his fight against Islamists by killing or imprisoning them, while trying to change the Muslim identity of Egypt. Despite the attempts of his media outlets to hit and doubt the constants of the Muslims by challenging and attacking the four Imams of Islam, they have failed to achieve their goals. They have also failed to promote the religious revolution he called for after the majority of the Egyptian people condemned it.

His third achievement is limiting freedoms and gagging the people. Post-coup, Egyptians no long have freedom of thought or expression; freedom in Egypt has died and it has become a police state. The number of deaths and torture inside police stations and prisons, as well as the cases of enforced disappearance and kidnapping from the streets and homes, has grown. The victims’ families do not even know where they are taken to. In most cases, they are taken to undisclosed locations belonging to the intelligence agencies. There are no longer any laws, prosecutors or courts worthy of the name in Egypt; the judiciary in Egypt has died and justice has been buried since the bloody coup. These are just some of the coup leader’s achievements. No doubt more will follow.

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