Egypt must ‘build trust’ before political dialogue: activists

Following President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s for a “political dialogue,” 64 activists called on the Egyptian government to take real measures to “establish trust” with the opposition.

“There is room for all of us in the nation,” the president said at a public gathering last month, calling on all political factions to get involved in a dialogue setting out the “priorities for national action”.

“Differences in opinion do not corrupt the nation’s cause,” he said.

Sisi also re-activated a dormant presidential pardon committee last month, and authorities had released 41 political prisoners from pre-trial detention earlier that week.

But more needs to be done, according to Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath, who spent two and a half years in detention before renouncing his Egyptian citizenship and being released to France in January.

“Freeing around 40 activists is nothing when the country still holds 60,000 political detainees and new ones are arrested every day,” Shaath told AFP on Monday.

Since taking power in 2014 after ousting late Islamist president Mohammed Morsi the year before, Sisi’s administration has led a crackdown that first targeted Islamists before widening to curtail all public space for dissent.

Monday’s statement, signed by Shaath and a number of high-profile Egyptian human rights defenders, lays out a list of actions and measures necessary “to create trust in advance of this dialogue”, he said.

“We want a dialogue between partners, not a conversation between prisoners and their jailer.”

The demands include the “full and immediate halt to all forms of arbitrary arrest”, the release of all political and freedom of press detainees, and the release of all those held in pre-trial remand for more than six months.

The activists have also demanded an independent investigation into reports of “torture” in prison, as well as demonstrable measures for the improvement of jail conditions.

In addition to Shaath, other signatories included human rights defenders Gamal Eid, Mahienour El-Massry and Bahey el-Din Hassan, journalists Solafa Magdy, Adel Sabry and Hossam el-Hamalawy, and actors Khaled Abol Naga and Amr Waked.

Human rights defenders have regularly denounced Egypt’s “abysmal” human rights record since Sisi took power.

In September of last year, Sisi announced a “national plan” for human rights, claiming that education, health, and electricity are more essential than freedom of assembly, which is illegal in Egypt.