Tag: morsi
Egypt Authorities Likely Committed Crimes Against Humanity, Group Says

Egypt Authorities Likely Committed Crimes Against Humanity, Group Says

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

A leading international human rights group asserted Tuesday that Egyptian authorities likely committed crimes against humanity in the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators last August, most of them supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt sharply disputed the findings of New York-based Human Rights Watch and barred senior representatives of the organization from entering the country to publicly present their report, which was based on a yearlong investigation.

The group urged that an international commission of inquiry be convened to investigate the “widespread and systematic” killings in Cairo’s Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square and several other locales. At least 817 people and possibly more than 1,000 were killed by security forces at Rabaa alone, Human Rights Watch said.

The document calls for an independent probe of the role of President Abdel Fattah Sisi, the then-military chief, and other senior military and security officials. It alleges that the security forces were essentially given carte blanche to use deadly force against protesters, and that the official plan for dealing with Morsi backers envisioned the likely deaths of several thousand demonstrators.

The violence erupted six weeks after the military removed Morsi from office after mass demonstrations demanding an end to his rule. Morsi, who is now on trial for a variety of capital offenses, was Egypt’s first freely elected president.

The Egyptian government conducted its own investigation of the deaths in mid-August of last year, when pro-Morsi sit-in camps were dispersed by police and soldiers. A government-backed human rights panel put the death toll at less than 700, and found — without implicating particular officials — that both sides had used excessive force.

Responding to Tuesday’s Human Rights Watch report, Egypt’s official State Information Service said the findings were characterized by “negativity and bias” and “ignored terrorist acts carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters.”

In the year since the killings, Egyptian authorities have carried out a wide-ranging crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the region’s oldest and largest Islamist movement, and curtailed a range of basic rights, including freedom of speech and assembly. The judiciary system has also rendered a series of harsh mass verdicts against alleged Brotherhood backers.

Many government opponents, both Islamist and secular, have been imprisoned under a tough anti-protest law. Academics, activists, filmmakers, and journalists have faced prosecution for activities allegedly endangering national security, including three journalists from the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera English, who were sentenced earlier this summer to seven-year prison terms on terrorism-related charges.

AFP Photo

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Tight Security In Cairo On Anniversary Of Egyptian President’s Ouster

Tight Security In Cairo On Anniversary Of Egyptian President’s Ouster

By Amro Hassan and Laura King, Los Angeles Times

CAIRO — Police and soldiers clamped a tight security lid on sensitive sites in the capital and elsewhere on Thursday, the one-year anniversary of the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. Scattered clashes between protesters and security forces left at least one demonstrator dead, state media reported.

Two other people were reported to have been killed in the town of Kerdasa, a few miles outside Cairo, near the Pyramids. Both were suspected militants who were apparently preparing a homemade bomb that went off prematurely, officials said.

Several other crude explosive devices went off or were defused in and around the capital and the coastal city of Alexandria, but no injuries or deaths were reported.

Supporters of Morsi had hoped to challenge security forces with a show of strength, calling on followers to take to the streets en masse on the anniversary. But the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi’s movement, has been decimated by a months-long crackdown that has left thousands of its backers in jail or dead. Morsi himself is on trial for a number of capital offenses.

Armored personnel carriers sealed off sites including Tahrir Square, which was ground zero for the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak and the venue for many mass gatherings since then.

Access was also blocked to the scene of what was the worst violence in the wake of Morsi’s ouster — Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where hundreds were killed in mid-August of last year when security forces moved in and broke up a pro-Morsi protest camp.

AFP Photo/Ahmed Gamel

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Egypt’s el-Sissi Says U.S. Asked Him Not To Overthrow Morsi

Egypt’s el-Sissi Says U.S. Asked Him Not To Overthrow Morsi

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

CAIRO — Egyptian presidential front-runner Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has disclosed that the United States tried last summer to stave off the ouster of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

In a televised interview taped earlier this week and aired Tuesday night, el-Sissi said that then-U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson asked him to wait “a day or two” before removing Morsi from office. The U.S. apparently hoped that the deeply unpopular Islamist president might agree to a nationwide referendum on whether he should remain, or some other political accommodation.

El-Sissi, the defense minister at the time, carried out the coup in July despite the U.S. appeal and since then has been the country’s de facto leader. His disclosure was the first public acknowledgment by a senior figure that the Americans were aware in advance that he intended to push Morsi aside.

Word of the U.S. attempt to forestall the coup is likely to fuel anti-American sentiment in Egypt, which flared after Morsi was deposed. Many Egyptians believe President Barack Obama was and remains a fervent supporter of the Islamist leader, particularly after state media carried out a concerted campaign of incitement against foreign “interference” in Egyptian affairs.

However, el-Sissi refrained in the interview from overt criticism of the American administration, asking instead for understanding of the circumstances surrounding Morsi’s ouster. He also said Western values should not be applied in judging Egypt.

“Look at us with Egyptian eyes,” he said.

Western governments and human rights groups have been sharply critical of repressive measures by the interim government, including the killing of hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators and the jailing of thousands more. The military-backed government has also placed curbs on freedom of expression and assembly, saying these steps were justified by security threats.

El-Sissi is expected to easily win the presidential vote on May 26-27.

AFP Photo/Mahmoud Khaled

Gunmen Kill Egyptian Police General In Cairo

Gunmen Kill Egyptian Police General In Cairo

Cairo (AFP) – Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead Tuesday an Egyptian police general in Cairo, who was also an aide to the interior minister, security officials and medics said.

The brazen morning attack comes a day after Egypt’s military backed its chief Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, to run for the presidency.

It also coincided with the start of a second trial against Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, whose ouster in July has polarised Egypt amid a sweeping police crackdown on his supporters, mostly Islamists.

General Mohamed Saeed was leaving his home in a west Cairo neighborhood when gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at him, hitting him in the head and the chest, security officials said.

He died of his injuries in hospital, while the assailants fled, they added.

Saeed was the head of the “technical department” of interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim.

Ibrahim himself was targeted by a car bomb on September 5 in Cairo. He had escaped unhurt.

That attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda inspired group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem.

The group has also claimed some of the deadliest bombings carried out across the country following Morsi’s ouster.

It said it carried out four bombings targeting police in Cairo on Friday that killed six people, a day before Egyptians marked the third anniversary of the toppling of Hosni Mubarak.

Photo: Mahmoud Khaled via AFP