These pictures show protesters staging a die-in outside Downing Street as controversial Egyptian President al-Sisi arrived to hold talks with David Cameron today. “Under the leadership of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt is carrying out an unprecedented crackdown on dissent and opposition, trampling over fundamental rights, and entrenching the authoritarian state that so many Egyptians revolted against in 2011”.
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Britain has a responsibility to stop the spread of Islamic extremism in Libya, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said ahead of a state visit to London.
However, standing next to Mr Sisi in Downing Street this afternoon, Mr Cameron signalled the Government would not proscribe the group as a terror organisation, as they are classed by several other countries.
El-Sisi is facing dire economic problems, as support for his government falls on two fronts. It lies with public opinion, with Egyptians. “Justice awaits him. Egyptians today deserve to have their rights and freedoms respected”.
The United Nations alleges that fair-trial guarantees appear to be increasingly trampled upon in Egypt, while the Brotherhood has said the trials of its leaders and supporters are politically motivated and attempts to give legal cover to a coup.
“This country is big enough to accommodate all of us”.
Young protesters like Hussein and Al-Taweel are part of Egypt’s “Generation Jail”, as the authorities move to snuff out all dissenting voices.
Asked about that many people in the Middle East believe that Britain was behind the formation of Daesh group due to its military intervention in Iraq and Libya as well as hosting extremist figures, Cameron said that the biggest terrorist operation was the bombing of New York’s World Trade Center Towers, which took place before measures taken in Iraq and Libya.
Senior Brotherhood leaders have been sentenced to death in what human rights groups call unfair trials.
“We also talked about the actions needed to make sure that this will not have any negative ramifications on the future of tourism in Egypt”, he said a day after Britain suspended flights to and from the resort, with Germany’s Lufthansa following suit on Thursday.
While Sisi and other senior figures enjoy diplomatic immunity, Dixon said this did not prevent police from investigating them and should not be an obstacle to prosecution in cases of “the most serious and egregious human rights violations”.
But Western diplomats say the death sentences could radicalise Islamists and would amount to political suicide.
But the meeting between the two leaders can be worth having – so long as Cameron uses the opportunity to condemn the Egyptian regime’s human rights abuses.
In the months following the coup of July 2013, which removed democratically elected president Mohamed Morsy, and while al-Sisi was defence minister, Egyptian security forces killed a few 1,150 protestors in five separate incidents.
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The Egyptian leader told the BBC efforts to improve democracy in Egypt were “a work in progress” which would take time, but his people now had the right to choose their leader.
