Living in Egypt: more Brutal than under Mubarak

For the past six years, Egyptian President al-Sisi in Power. But anyone who criticizes the System, is sent to prison and is brutally tortured.

By Martin Durm, SWR

you have him picked up already three Times. Once you dragged him in broad daylight from a street cafe. The other two times they took him home. The men were masked. They beat the doors and cupboards broken, took what they could get - money, papers, Computer, and abducted him blindfolded to state security. Amr says that he has learned how to withstand times of captivity:

"I think of all that I love, the mean something to me. I'm holding on to memories, of all that is good. I tell myself that this happened to me already, and that it is also this time, people passing by, that I will come back."

in Egypt In the year 2019, it is almost no longer possible to meet people like Amr. Too great the fear of a Regime that tolerates neither criticism nor opposition.

60.000 political prisoners

International observers from more than 60,000 political prisoners; it is not only Muslim brothers, but also liberal politicians, bloggers, journalists or NGO staff, such as Amr.

The name of the Egyptian has been changed. Only so much can be said that Amr is mid 20's, a young, cosmopolitan man who was hired after completing his studies at the University of Cairo, a human rights organization. That was his crime. "Working for an NGO means that You will be punished for this sooner or later," says Amr, and adds: "I have been beaten at the state security first for two hours with sticks. Neck, ears, tummy, legs, everywhere...you have broken me with a rifle butt to the nose and then with electric shocks, torture." Then I brought him to the Prosecutor, he had told what was done with him. The Prosecutor ordered then detention.

there is No room for freedom of the media

Since 2013, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Power in Egypt. The way he, like, put, you, was so brutal that he will afterwards grieve sometimes, even the deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak, said the opponents of the regime, Khaled Dawoud. Mubarak have at least left a little air to Breathe: "Today there is no more room for people, the enagieren for human rights or for the opposition parties or the media," says Dawoud. Since may of 2018, bloggers would be arrested, just because you commented on the political situation on facebook or twitter. "People come to prison, because you have posted something and we blame them that it was a coup attempt. Anyone who practices kind of criticism of the Regime."

Ägyptems President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in 2013. His style is brutal, say critics.

The sheer mass of prisoners to the state security apparatus prior to a placement problem. In the years under al-Sisi have been built according to information of Amnesty International, 19 new prisons in Egypt, two of which can reportedly hold a total of 30,000 prisoners.

Traumatized Ex-prisoners

"to come To us, many young people who don't complain a bit more about the violence in the prisons, in addition to all the torture victims now," says Aida al-Dawla from the so-called Nadeem Center. The center for victims of torture was made two years ago by the state, but its employees serve still traumatized Ex-prisoners in Cairo. "We have to do it with people who are completely disoriented," says al-Dawla. "You were locked up for two, three years, and are no longer found in the world. Everything to them is become a stranger, you know where."

In the prison cells

Egypt - eight years after the Arab spring broken. Many of those who fought in 2011 in Tahrir square for a free, better life, were broken after that, in prison cells. It was all invented, explained the Regime, there is no systematic torture, at most, a few individual cases.

Who fought eight years ago in Tahrir Pkatz for a free life, was broken after that, in prison cells.

According to Aida Seif al-Dawla, the government is lying: "The reports of the victims are consistent across the Board. For example, as you describe, independently of each other, the arrival in the prisons: If the Transportvans arrive and you get out and clean need to go. You call the Taschrifa reception celebration."

Amr has experienced this procedure three Times. He tells of the "receiving party", in which the newcomers and the naked shaved: "Then the guards form a kind of alley. We must then, while the guards with hoses and electric cables, batter us. You mean, we should feel from the very first day the iron Hand of the regime."

Germany delivers military equipment

Last October, was Egypt's ruler on a state visit in Berlin. At the joint press conference, Chancellor Angela Merkel described the relationships as "very close and very complex". The German arms exports, which amounted in the year 2017 to 428 million euros.

Egypt is one of the Top recipients of German military equipment outside the EU, only a few weeks ago approved by the Federal security Council, the sale of a frigate in the value of half a billion euros. Reportedly, the Egyptian Navy will get in the coming years, yet another frigate from Germany.

It would be good for Sisi, says the opposition, Khaled Dawoud, the Chaos in the Arab world seem to legitimize his Regime: to break up countries like Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen threatened. So Sisi tell its Western interlocutors that it was just his authoritarian government style, the Egypt spared a similar fate, says Dawoud: "So he sells: He says: 'I am in this Region, the only guarantor of stability, to me there is no Alternative.' But as a dictatorship, Egypt's problems should be solved?"

with arrest

Amr is in a year. He moves carefully in the city, and he must at any time expect to be arrested again. Without charge, without trial, and without something done - so, like last Time:

"The one who tortured me, said shortly before to me: 'I have nothing Personal against You, the only Problem is that here our paths cross.' He's doing his job. And before he started, he asked: 'do You Believe in God?' As I told you."

Egypt: The broken revolt
Martin Durm, SWR
25.01.2019 09:45 PM

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