British ambassador reiterates concern for human rights situation in Egypt

British ambassador to Egypt John Casson yesterday reiterated his country’s concerns regarding the human rights situation in Egypt.

In a tweet, Casson said: “UK deeply concerned about detentions of political and civil society activists & journalists.”

Last Thursday, during an UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Britain said it is “deeply concerned about detentions of political and civil society activists and journalists, deaths and reports of torture in police detention and prisons, and the continued narrowing of space for civil society to operate freely.”

They added that “the UK believes that respect for human rights is fundamental to Egypt’s long-term stability.”

In a statement issued on Thursday, the European Parliament said: “That the case of Giulio Regeni is not an isolated accident, but it is placed within a context of a dramatic increase in reports of torture in police detention stations and other cases of death in custody and enforced disappearances across Egypt under the current leadership.” It also called for an end to human rights violations and the security attacks against those defending human rights.

During this same meeting, recommendations were submitted to cease aid to Egypt on the back of the murder of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo about a month ago.

Regeni, who was 28 and a student at Cambridge University, was in Cairo since September preparing his dissertation on the Egyptian economy. He disappeared on the night of 25 January in the city of Giza, west of Cairo, where he was supposed to meet an Egyptian individual. His body was found 10 days later on the side of a road west of Cairo.

The Egyptian interior ministry denied in past statements that its institutions and agencies had any connection to the incident. It also announced that it opened an investigation into Regeni’s death but it has not announced the results of the inquiry.