Top: The remains of a burnt-out armored personnel carrier in Tahrir Square on January 29, 2011.
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The blaring siren of an armoured police vehicle sounded nearby, a reminder of the street battles of 2011.
They demanded Morsi’s reinstatement as president and shouted slogans against the army, police and ruling regime.
“The hopes that the “25 January Revolution” would herald a new era of reforms and respect for human rights have been truly shattered”.
Since the ouster of the ex-Brotherhood leader, Mohammad Morsi in 2013, Egyptian authorities have put numerous Islamist leaders on trial, sentenced many of them to death, and sent a general message that the group will never again be allowed to return to the political stage.
CAIRO (AP) – Egypt on Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak but failed to bring about the goals of democracy and freedom the young activists who spearheaded the “revolution” had espoused.
In recent weeks, police detained more followers of ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group and secular activists allegedly for inciting violence against state institutions and planning illegal protests on the anniversary of the uprising.
Egyptian police stand guard a day ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 25, 2011 uprising in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016.
Despite the heavy police presence Monday, supporters of the Brotherhood held at least two small demonstrations, with participants numbering in the low hundreds – both in Cairo’s twin city of Giza.
“Egypt today is not the Egypt of yesterday. In word and deed, Mr. Sisi and other officials have treated even the possibility of demonstrations on the anniversary as a grave threat to the nation”. “They are trying to create a fake battle by pretending that they are facing revolutionary protesters, and they have to prevent them from demonstrating”, he told BuzzFeed News.
El-Sissi, who came to office in 2014 after a landslide election win, also cautioned against high expectations for democracy and freedoms.
“It’s now clear that the counter-revolution has triumphed”, said Karim Bitar of the Paris-based Institute of global and Strategic Studies.
The crackdown has forced numerous youths who took part in the uprising to flee Egypt or abandon politics. “We dreamt that Egypt would be better”, said one Cairo resident. Sadly, though, the trajectories for most of these protest movements have been grim, leading to either full-blown wars or harsh crackdowns by the state or counter-revolutionary forces.
Mr EL Sisi still faces serious challenges, including reviving a sluggish economy as investments and tourist revenues fall, and a deadly insurgency led by the Egyptian affiliate of ISIL.
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According to eyewitnesses at the scene, protesters flashed the Rabaa sign – a four-fingered salute that commemorates the murder of more than 1,000 pro-Morsi demonstrators by Egyptian security forces in the wake of the 2013 coup.
