Here:
We are concerned to hear that the government has invited the Egyptian dictator, Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to visit the UK.
We believe it violates the British values which the government claims to champion to welcome a ruler who has overthrown an elected government and instituted a regime of terror which has thrown back the cause of democracy in Egypt and the wider Middle East many years.
While not necessarily supporting deposed President Morsi or the policies of his Freedom and Justice party, we note that he was democratically elected, and that his removal from office was effected by means of a military coup led by Sisi.
Since then Sisi’s military-directed regime has massacred thousands of civilians. Hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, including President Morsi, have been sentenced to death in mass trials that were a travesty of justice. Almost all independent political activity has been suppressed, including that of liberal and leftwing organisations. Women’s rights have been violated across the country.
Sisi was “elected” president in 2014 in a vote that did not meet the most minimal democratic standards. The parliamentary elections currently taking place in the absence of any real opposition have been shunned by the vast majority of Egyptian voters with record low turnout, in the expectation that the new Egyptian parliament will be no more than a fig leaf for Sisi’s authoritarian regime.
Meanwhile, security and police forces have illegally arrested, detained and tortured Egyptian citizens, media freedoms have been suppressed and many journalists arrested and abused.
Such renunciation of democracy and human rights has surely contributed to the upsurge of terrorism in Egypt, which we repudiate but regard as a consequence of, rather than a justification for, Sisi’s barbarism.
Under these circumstances, we regard any visit to the UK by this despot as an affront to democratic values. No considerations of commerce or realpolitik can justify such an invitation. We urge the government to withdraw it.
We are concerned to hear that the government has invited the Egyptian dictator, Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to visit the UK.
We believe it violates the British values which the government claims to champion to welcome a ruler who has overthrown an elected government and instituted a regime of terror which has thrown back the cause of democracy in Egypt and the wider Middle East many years.
While not necessarily supporting deposed President Morsi or the policies of his Freedom and Justice party, we note that he was democratically elected, and that his removal from office was effected by means of a military coup led by Sisi.
Since then Sisi’s military-directed regime has massacred thousands of civilians. Hundreds of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, including President Morsi, have been sentenced to death in mass trials that were a travesty of justice. Almost all independent political activity has been suppressed, including that of liberal and leftwing organisations. Women’s rights have been violated across the country.
Sisi was “elected” president in 2014 in a vote that did not meet the most minimal democratic standards. The parliamentary elections currently taking place in the absence of any real opposition have been shunned by the vast majority of Egyptian voters with record low turnout, in the expectation that the new Egyptian parliament will be no more than a fig leaf for Sisi’s authoritarian regime.
Meanwhile, security and police forces have illegally arrested, detained and tortured Egyptian citizens, media freedoms have been suppressed and many journalists arrested and abused.
Such renunciation of democracy and human rights has surely contributed to the upsurge of terrorism in Egypt, which we repudiate but regard as a consequence of, rather than a justification for, Sisi’s barbarism.
Under these circumstances, we regard any visit to the UK by this despot as an affront to democratic values. No considerations of commerce or realpolitik can justify such an invitation. We urge the government to withdraw it.
Evan Bartlett
Two senior figures in Jeremy
Corbyn's Labour shadow cabinet have added their names to a letter calling on
the government to withdraw its invitation to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott,
the shadow secretary of state for international development, are among 55
signatories to an open letter in Tuesday's Guardian newspaper.
The letter states that the signatories - which include
politicians, journalists, activists and academics - are "concerned to hear
that the government has invited the Egyptian dictator, Field Marshal Abdel
Fatah al-Sisi, to visit the UK" which could happen as early as next week.
"We believe it violates the British values
which the government claims to champion to welcome a ruler who has overthrown
an elected government and instituted a regime of terror which has thrown back
the cause of democracy in Egypt and the wider Middle East many years."
Corbyn is also believed to be opposed to the invitation
of Sisi . Speaking to Middle
East Eye in
August, the Labour leader said:
"I would not
have invited [Sisi] to the UK because of my concerns over the use of the death
penalty in Egypt and the treatment of people who were part of the former
government of Morsi, which was elected, and the continued imprisonment of
President Morsi."
The Labour leader was criticised by the Saudi ambassador
to London on Monday, in an article for the Telegraph that human rights campaigners called
"disingenuous, evasive and intimidatory", for apparently
"breaching respect" after calling on the Conservative government to
cancel a prison training contract with the Saudi regime - which it did last
week.
The invitation to Sisi was extended in July, the day
after the Egyptian regime upheld a death sentence on former
democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.
Interesting to see Peter Oborne among the signatories.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to his account of his arrest while demonstrating against Sisi.
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