El-Sissi urged Egyptians on Sunday to stand alongside authorities in securing state institutions, vowing that efforts by “evil” forces to destabilize the country, still struggling to recover from the 2011 ouster of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, would fail.
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Later that day President Sisi said in a speech, “There are those attempting to affect security and stability”.
Officials warned that any protesters would be firmly dealt with.
On April 21, al-Shorouk carried a story about a meeting at the presidency in which President Sisi reportedly said he would not tolerate a repeat of the demonstrations on April 15 (dubbed the “Friday of Land” in reference to the two islands Egypt recently recognized as Saudi Arabian). Security personnel deployed by the thousands around the capital to block another round of rallies over the islands, whose handover has provoked the biggest show of domestic opposition to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi since his 2014 election.
Sisi slammed the protest organizers, describing them as people who seek to disturb Egypt’s security, Al-Ahram reported Sunday.
Those arrested include Ahmed Abdullah, the head of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, an NGO that, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, offered consultancy assistance to the lawyers of the family of an Italian doctoral student who was abducted, tortured and killed in Cairo earlier this year.
“Security forces have been given free rein to use excessive force, including live ammunition against demonstrators”, the statement said.
He had enjoyed unwavering loyalty in much of the Egyptian media since he took office, but criticism of the president and his police force has grown in recent months. On April 15, about 2,000 people protested in downtown Cairo over the islands.
Sissi’s comments raise the possibility of large-scale counter-demonstrations that could turn violent, in addition to a potentially harsh police crackdown – especially if the demonstrators attempt to reach the heavily policed Tahrir Square. These included foreign nationals, activists and journalists.
The Egyptian government, for its part, has defended the move, saying the islands were originally Saudi territory and that Egypt had only temporarily assumed control over them in 1950 due to Saudi fears they could be seized by Israel.
“Egypt needs the truth revealed to its people: through dialogue, not suppression, with documents, evidence and maps, not security raids and random detentions”, the columnist Abdullah el-Sinnawy wrote in Monday’s al-Shorouk daily.
Tunisian activists have called for protests in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Tunis on Monday, in solidarity with the protests planned for Cairo.
“I see there are people calling once again for damage to our security and stability”, said el-Sissi, a former military officer whose rule has been characterized by zero-tolerance on dissent. “There are so many injustices in Egypt right now, and this regime is failing and betraying us every day”.
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Sisi was adulated by millions of Egyptians who opposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, whom the army overthrew in 2013.
