Egypt's El-Baradei called on to give evidence on allegations of crimes by Sisi regime

Former interim Vice President of Egypt, Dr Mohammed El-Baradei, is called on by an international investigation team to provide evidence into crimes against humanity perpetrated by the military backed government in the 2013 Egyptian coup.

In a public statement, the former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, provided important insight into events that took place during the military coup in 2013 which saw the overthrow of President Morsi and the massacre of thousands of unarmed protestors.

Dr El-Baradei, who took the position of interim vice president in the immediate aftermath of the coup issued the statement on his Facebook page on 1st November 2016, having kept his silence for three years.

In the statement, Dr El-Baradei described attempts that he made to “work in order to avoid a civil war and to maintain peace” through a road map. He says that he hoped for “a prime minister and government with all the powers to manage a transitional period” and attempted to create a “National Reconciliation Committee.” El-Baradei suggested that these efforts were undermined by the National Defence Council (NDC).

Instead, on 13 August 2013 “matters took a completely different turn after the use of force to break up the rallies” was authorised. This made his role in the NDC untenable.

On 14 August 2014, the military went on to use unprecedented levels of violence to disperse large groups of unarmed peaceful protestors in two camps in Cairo located at the Al Nahda Square and Rabaa al Adawiya Square, killing hundreds of protestors and injuring thousands. According to Human Rights Watch, a minimum of 817 people were killed in Rabaa Square alone. They describe the massacre as “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history”.

Dr El-Baradei states that he was “absolutely opposed” to these actions. He strongly disputes any allegation that he consented to the decision to use force to break up the rally at Rabaa Al-Adawiya.

Dr El-Baradei resigned as the interim Vice President on 14 August 2013 citing his opposition to the violence. In his recent statement, Dr El-Baradei complains that following his resignation, he became the victim of “vicious attacks” by the “media”.

The violent crackdown by the military led to condemnation by human rights organisations across the world and the launch of several international criminal investigations, including an investigation which is currently being conducted by the Scotland Yard’s International War Crimes Division in the UK.

The Freedom & Justice Party, which had been led by President Morsi, instructed an international team of lawyers to investigate the allegations of international crimes perpetrated by the military during the 2013 coup in Egypt.

Tayab Ali, Partner at leading London law firm ITN Solicitors, who represents the FJP, said:

I welcome the fact that Dr El-Baradei has finally broken his silence and has stated that the violence perpetrated by the military regime in Egypt was not necessary and that peaceful alternatives were available.

We now have very credible evidence that the decision to use violence was authorised by the National Defence Council and that they chose to ignore credible peaceful alternatives. We consider Dr El-Baradei’s statement to be an important new evidential development and we have ensured that it has been brought to the attention of Scotland Yard.

The allegation made is a serious one. There is ample evidence that the military crackdown amounted to a crime against humanity. I call on Dr El-Baradei to meet with my investigation team and provide evidence detailing precisely what happened within the National Defence Council in the lead up to the massacres.

I have no doubt that Dr El-Baradei will prove to be a key-witness in bringing the perpetrators of these international crimes to justice.

Read: Muslim Brotherhood responds to Baradei’s statement