Egyptian President el-Sissi condemned for 'flagrant human rights abuses' in first year

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Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based campaign group, marked el-Sissi's first year in power by issuing a critical report on its website.

"The el-Sissi government is acting as though to restore stability Egypt needs a dose of repression the likes of which it hasn't seen for decades, but its treatment is killing the patient," wrote Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director.

Since the removal of democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, hundreds of his supporters have been killed and thousands jailed. Egypt says Morsi's party, the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, is a threat to national security.

http://www.dw.de/egyptian-president-el-sissi-condemned-for-flagrant-human-rights-abuses-in-first-year/a-18504067

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1. Egypt summons U.S. ambassador over Muslim Brotherhood

Egypt summoned the U.S. ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials did not intend to meet the group although they had met some Brotherhood figures that came to Washington in January.

The tensions reflect a clash between U.S. diplomats' desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who, as army chief, toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013.

The sources declined to say precisely when U.S. Ambassador Stephen Beecroft was call in by the Egyptian government, though one said it was in recent days. Egypt sought the meeting to make clear its unhappiness at U.S. dealings with the Brotherhood.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/09/us-egypt-usa-idUSKBN0OP00920150609?rpc=401

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2. Egypt is a nation of dead men walking

Mass death sentences are usually associated with regimes like those of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis or Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. But Egypt’s military rulers have now joined the ranks of such regimes, staging circus-like trials in which the outcome is foreordained. One such trial, in March 2014, produced 529 death sentences. Another, in April, yielded 683 death sentences. And the trend shows no signs of slowing.

Last month, 107 people – including Mohammad Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president – were handed death sentences for their alleged role in a mass “prison break” during the January 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak. Morsi was also accused of “colluding with foreign militants” – that is, Hezbollah and Hamas – in order to free political prisoners in Egypt.

Soon after, the six defendants in the so-called “Arab Sharkas” case – who were handed death sentences in October 2014 for allegedly attacking security posts – were executed, despite a local and international outcry against the flawed trial. According to Ahmed Helmi, a lawyer for four of the six men, the government wanted to “send a message following Morsi’s verdict” that it would carry out such sentences. His clients and the others, he concluded, were just “scapegoats.”

Overall, civilian courts have handed down more than 1,000 death sentences since Egypt’s military overthrew Morsi in July 2013. The profiles of the “convicts” raise eyebrows: Emad Shahin, for example, is a world-renowned academic who has taught at Harvard and the American University in Cairo; Sondos Asem is a promising young scholar and political activist.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2015/Jun-09/301151-egypt-is-a-nation-of-dead-men-walking.ashx

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3. Attacks in Egypt's North Sinai Kill 1 Soldier, Wound 5

Militants in Egypt's northern Sinai carried out two separate attacks against military troops in the restive province, killing one soldier and wounding five, security and hospital officials said.

In one Monday attack, fighters ambushed a military checkpoint near the town of Sheikh Zuweyid, firing several mortar shells that killed one conscript and wounded a soldier, the officials said.

In another attack, attackers detonated a bomb by remote control as an armored vehicle passed, wounding four soldiers near the city of Rafah, which borders the Gaza Strip, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists

The long-restive northern Sinai has seen a spike in attacks targeting security forces since the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/attacks-egypts-north-sinai-kill-soldier-wound-31608227

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