“THEIR main objective is to create fear,” says Mohamed Lotfy of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a pressure group, referring to a series of arrest of activists as the government intensifies a long-running crackdown on dissent. Indeed, even as Mr Lotfy speaks, his phone rings: the police have arrested three more people.
A colleague, Ahmed Abdullah, himself sought by the security services, is putting on a brave face. Sitting in a café in Cairo, Mr Abdullah is sure he will be arrested—perhaps worse, he says, implying that the police might shoot him. “It is part of the price that we should pay for freedom.”
The government, on the other hand, appears nervous. In the months leading up to the fifth anniversary on January 25th of the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, the ousted dictator, the current government led by the strongman Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has tried to dispel any danger of a repeat. Protests in 2014 and 2015 led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests. Clerics, labour leaders and television hosts have been enlisted in the effort to keep people off the streets.
Activists claim they have no big plans for protests this year. But the government is rounding up perceived troublemakers with unrestrained vigour, adding to the tens of thousands of political detainees already languishing in Egyptian prisons. Most are accused of...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1OzweLz
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