Egypt Accused of Playing Politics With Torture at Home, War in Gaza

Observers say President El-Sisi wants to benefit in the December elections from growing anger over Gaza in the Arab world’s most populous country.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt, gives a press conference in Addis Ababa on March 24, 2015. Zacharias Abubeker/AFP/Getty Images

On Oct. 20, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of different Egyptian cities—including the iconic Tahrir Square—in support of Gaza which has seen Israeli bombardments in response to terror attacks carried out by Hamas.

Two days prior, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi took many aback when he told visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he could “call on the Egyptian people to come out and express their rejection” of Israeli actions in Gaza “and you would see millions of Egyptians” in the street.

Public protests are typically prohibited in Egypt.

A total of 400 people were arrested in Egypt on Oct. 4 over “riot incidents” after President Sisi announced that he would run for a third term in the country’s presidential elections slated for Dec. 10–12.

Nearly 100 more were held in Egypt after taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on Oct.20.

Observers believe Mr. El-Sisi wants to harness the growing anger in the Arab world’s most populous country regarding the situation in Gaza.

“President Sisi’s actions do seem like a cynical attempt to deflect public anger over his running for a third term onto Israel,” Joshua Meservey, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times in an email.

“It is a common tactic of leaders who are facing domestic discontent to seek an outside antagonist with which to distract their people, and Sisi may be dusting off that playbook,” he said.

President El-Sisi has been in power since toppling Mohammed Morsi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, in 2013 amid mass protests against his rule. His decade-long rule has long been criticised for its poor rights record.

Egypt’s Human Rights Record Under Review

The UN Committee Against Torture is due to review Egypt’s human rights record on Nov. 14–15, 2023.

This follows the submission earlier this month of a report by a coalition of six Egyptian and international non-governmental organizations claiming that the use of torture by Egyptian authorities is so “widespread” and “systematic” that it amounts to a crime against humanity under customary international law.

In the report titled, “Torture in Egypt: A Crime Against Humanity”, the coalition— REDRESS, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), Dignity, the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)—said that torture is being used as a political tool to curtail dissent in Egypt where currently around 60,000 people are detained as political prisoners.

“The repeated testimonies verified and collected since 2017 [bordered] on the incidents of arrest, torture, ill-treatment, and deliberate denial of health care,” Ahmed Mefreh, the CFJ’s executive director told The Epoch Times in an email.

Mr. Ahmed said it “wasn’t easy” compiling the cases of torture as many victims, “think twice of documenting their experiences fearing retaliation.”

Smoke billows from Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt during an Israeli airstrike on Oct. 10, 2023. Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images

“On the side of CFJ, re-victimization is another factor limiting how much information we can get about incidents of torture,” he said.

“Interviews normally follow open-ended questions and check victims’ consent and psychological condition at every question or follow-up.

“We do not assume testimonies to be exhaustive; they are mainly what victims would like to disclose in general.”

Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Oct. 3—shortly after the submission of the report to the UN committee against torture—Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the widespread and systemic targeting of the civilian population in Egypt happens “with the full knowledge of the regime.”

“It is not just that it is pervasive as a practice, as a crime committed in all places of detention, but it is employed as a means of governance both to punish those in any form of dissent: journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders, political opponents, etc; but also to deter others from engaging in any political activism and political event,” Mr. Bahgat said.

“The methodical use of torture in Egypt follows a consistent pattern; geographically and against any target and usually includes beatings, hanging from painful positions, the use of electric shocks to the body and especially to their genitalia, subjecting defendants and arrestees to inner examinations or virginity tests, the denial of medical care, the use of solitary confinement as well as other forms of inhumane and degrading treatment while in prison.”

Critics Pick Holes in Allegations

Several requests by The Epoch Times for comment from Egyptian authorities have been made.

Mr. El-Sisi’s administration has repeatedly denied accusations of rights abuses while stressing the need to maintain stability in the country.

Speaking to The Epoch Times from Cairo, Egypt, Mr. Mohamed Zayed, Chairman Arab African Council on Socioeconomic Development (AACSED) and International Consulting Limited (ICLEG) described the NGO’s report as deeply flawed.

Mr. Zayed pointed out that most NGOs have in recent decades “morphed into arms or proxy”—knowingly and sometimes unknowingly—for and on behalf of the intelligence community of several major countries, mainly the United States.

“There are reams of evidence available that substantiate this new form and use of NGOs in geopolitical struggles between great powers targeting others and their adversaries,” he told The Epoch Times in a chat.

“[Between] 80–90 percent of NGOs today have at least some management employees or indirect funding from intelligence community entities mainly from Washington.

“Here, I was a witness to this during the so-called synthetic Arab spring which was bought and paid for by the intelligence community from several major Western countries, in particular the USA.”

Mr. Zayed claimed that youths were sent out to “train in civil disobedience” and on how to write articles “exactly like the one written by REDRESS and Co.”

“This has become common, unfortunately,” he says.

“Washington is very displeased that Egypt refused to take sides and remain neutral in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Israel-Palestine conflict and others before that.

“There is a clear policy of economic media and other strategic attacks and pressure on Egypt to try and blackmail Egypt into becoming an aggressor rather than peacemaker and neutral party.”

Consequently, Mr. Zayed went on, there is “not one single case of alleged torture” related to Egypt that has produced any evidence.

“There have been many observer missions and cooperation with international entities in this regard,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Torture is a crime and it is not something that is committed officially or otherwise by Egypt.

“The first and most widely published and proven cases of torture was regarding the United States and their secret prisons run during their military attacks on Iraq and other places over the years whereby cases were found to prove the torture was actually committed and widespread internationally under the direction of the military and intelligence community administered from Washington.”

Sending ‘Strong Message’ to Cairo

The UN Committee Against Torture is a body of 10 independent experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by its state parties.

Egypt has been subjected to its inquiry twice in the past: First in 1996 and later in 2017. In both cases, the committee concluded that torture in Egypt is committed in a “systematic” and “widespread” manner, according to Mr. Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

“What we are asking the committee to do now is to actually adopt our legal designation that because of the failure to prosecute or prevent this practice, and because of the full state knowledge of this practice and the pervasive atmosphere of impunity, it actually amounts to a crime against humanity and we call on the international community to start treating it as such,” he said.

Mr. Bahgat said it was incumbent on Western countries providing financial, economic, and military support to the Egyptian government “to engage” authorities on the use of torture.

“The United States, Germany, France, and Italy are all countries that are fully aware of the magnitude of the human rights crisis currently in Egypt, and we are calling on them to lift up to this obligation not just as a moral duty, but also as a legal obligation under international law.”

Mr. Mefreh of the Committee for Justice wants the Committee this time around, to be able to send “a strong message to the Egyptian government” and to work more practically to translate its recommendations into actions and “not recommendations that expire with the end of the committee’s work schedule.”

However, Mr. Zayed of the Arab African Council on Socioeconomic Development says he “doesn’t know what to expect” from the UN committee against torture when it reviews Egypt’s human rights record next month.

“But if the administration in Washington remains in this period, we expect similar comments or content as it’s being shaped and fed by the administration functionaries.

“The United States is hands down the world’s validated torture machine when they need to extract intelligence or intimidate any particular country group or person.”

Alliance of Convenience

The United States has repeatedly criticized Egypt’s human rights record, accusing authorities of torture and “life-threatening prison conditions.”

But in a surprise move, the administration of President Joe Biden last month approved most military aid to Cairo, in a total package that exceeds $1.2 billion and includes $235 million subject to human rights conditions imposed by Congress.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, citing national security interests, waved those restrictions but withheld a separate $85 million over rights issues.

However, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin (D-Md.), threatened to block the military funding—a move applauded by rights groups.

US–Egypt ties have come under careful international scrutiny lately, with some U.S. analysts calling for a rethinking or “reassessment” of ties between Washington and Cairo.

Mr. Meservey of the Washington-based Hudson Institute says it is “unlikely” that Washington’s relationship with Cairo will “ever be smooth”, suggesting the Biden administration has to do the “hard work” of pressuring Egypt over its negative activities while also working together with it on “important issues of mutual shared interest.”

“The US–Egypt relationship has long been difficult for many reasons, and friction continues today. However, it is important that the U.S. maintain a working relationship with Egypt, a big, important country in an extremely sensitive region,” he told The Epoch Times.

“It was also the first Arab state to make peace with Israel more than 40 years ago, and is helpful in other ways, such as helping to restrict weapons flows into Gaza.”