CAIRO – Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday lashed out at Amnesty International due to its report accusing Egyptian authorities of jailing young activists amid the toughest security crackdown.
“The Foreign Ministry entirely denounces and rejects Amnesty International’s report which falsely claims that Egyptian authorities targeted youths and arrested tens of people without fair trials’’, the ministry said.
The ministry described Amnesty International as “an organisation lacking credibility”, accusing the human rights group of encouraging terrorism by calling for ultimate freedom and circulating lies.
Amnesty International’s report released on Tuesday entitled: “Generation Jail: Egypt’s youths go from protest to prison” focused on 14 cases of jailed youths among alleged thousands, during the past two years over protesting.
Several human rights groups criticised the Egyptian security forces for launching massive security crackdowns following the removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the military in July 2013.
The crackdown was not confined to Morsi’s supporters as it also extended to youths and opposition activists who supported Morsi’s removal yet rejected the policies of the new President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
Morsi was deposed by the military in July 2013 following mass protests against his one-year rule.
Thereafter, a security crackdown on his supporters led to the death of over 1,000 individuals and thousands were arrested in addition to the blacklisting of the Muslim Brotherhood group as “a terrorist entity.”
However, hundreds of police and army personnel were killed in terrorist attacks undertaken by extremists and self-proclaimed Islamists since Morsi’s removal.
The country’s top prosecutor was assassinated on Monday via a car bomb in Cairo, becoming the first terrorist attack to target such a senior official.
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Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights said in its annual report released in late May that the violence since Morsi’s removal resulted in the death of 2,600 individuals.
This, it said, included 700 police and army personnel, 550 civilians and 1,250 Brotherhood members and supporters. (Xinhua/NAN)
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