Over 3,000 people have been detained in anti-government protests. Yet Trump calls the Egyptian president his favourite dictator, and Britain remains Egypt’s single largest investor

Bel Trew
@beltrew

Some parents in Egypt started banning their children from leaving the house on Fridays, fearing even if they don’t join anti-government rallies, they could be at risk of arrest. Others have confiscated their phones and forced them to delete their social media accounts.

But even these precautions have not saved several from being snatched up in the largest sweep of arrests in the country since president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took office in 2014.

Protesters, prominent activists, journalists and politicians are among more than 3,000 people who have been detained since small rallies against Sisi, repression, corruption and Egypt’s myriad economic woes first kicked off on 20 September, according to the Egyptian

Commission for Rights and Freedom (ECRF)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Also, according to rights groups and people I’ve interviewed, among those haphazardly rounded up are children who were out buying school uniform, tourists holidaying in Cairo, human rights lawyers going to court to represent clients, confused bystanders, young men popping out for evening strolls, visiting foreign students and street vendors.

All are now swallowed up in Egypt’s notoriously opaque justice system.

read more here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/egypt-protests-sisi-alaa-uk-us-trump-johnson-a9144826.html