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CEO of Dassault Aviation in Egypt after accusations of conspiracy of surveillance, arrest and torturing Egyptians

December 7, 2021 at 2:24 pm

GIFAS (French Aerospace Industries Association) Chairman and Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier in Paris on June 9, 2020 [ERIC PIERMONT/AFP via Getty Images]

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi received Eric Trappier, CEO of the giant Company of Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the army aircraft Rafale.

According to the investigative website, Disclose, a few days ago, the Company sold a collective surveillance system in cooperation with Nexa Technologies, the Company accused of complicity in Egyptians’ surveillance, arrest and torturing.

This came on the margin of Dassault’s participation in the Egypt International Defence and Military Industries Exhibition “EDEX 2021”, in the presence of Lieutenant-General, Muhammad Zaki, Minister of Defence, Lieutenant-General Muhammad Abbas Helmy, Commander of the Air Force, and Major General Ahmed El-Shazly, Head of the Financial Affairs Authority in the Armed Forces and Major General Osama Ezzat, head of the Armed Forces Arming Authority.

READ: US companies win $19bn contract to develop Egypt’s Tahrir Complex

This meeting generated tremendous controversy, as the Disclose report confirmed that political opponents, journalists, NGO leaders, homosexuals and strikers for the past five years, all those who do not think or live according to the precepts of the military regime had risked imprisonment.

The French website explained that the unprecedented repression of Egyptian civil society was facilitated by a massive cyber-surveillance system installed by three French companies, under an agreement with the Egyptian authorities to sell Spywares.

The report revealed that three technology companies came together in 2014 around a project to monitor the population outside normal boundaries, which enabled the linking of the different databases together on behalf of the mysterious regime agency “the Military Intelligence.”

According to the information mentioned in the report, the digital database of personal IDs and passports was available for the group that travelled to Cairo five times between October 2015 and December 2016. Also, it mentioned training provided for Egyptian intelligence officers in Paris.

The report mentioned that Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi relied on two essential allies to consolidate his power, acquired by force in July 2013. The first is France, one of his main Western partners, which provided diplomatic, military and commercial support. The second is the United Arab Emirates, which allocated €150 million to provide El-Sisi with the missing element for his repressive arsenal: digital espionage.

READ: UAE official says French Rafale planes no substitute for US fighters

From his side, the presidential spokesperson stated that the meeting was about the aspects of cooperation with Dassault Company, considering its ancient experience in the developed technology systems of military industry.

Observers explained that the meeting carries deliberate messages from Al-Sisi that we are not afraid and will keep our work, regardless of anyone.

Besides, the French side is also proving that it is not afraid of accountability and building its national narrative that the victims are not French and its relationship with the Egyptian regime is in the best interest of France.

As the prevailed stream of politicians and public opinion, in France and Europe, in general, is the right-wing populism which adopts the prospect of benefiting from the third world in any way without regard to human rights issues.