Thousands Detained in Egypt for Protesting Against President Sisi

By Sushmita Roy

In a rare mass display of public disapproval against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, thousands of protesters took to the streets in several Egyptian cities last week. According to a report released by human rights monitors on Wednesday, authorities have detained more than 1,100 people since the weekend, Reuters reported.

"They [security forces] fired tear gas, rubber and live bullets and there were injuries," an anonymous protester in Suez told the AFP news agency. According to him, about 200 protesters were marching towards the city’s central area for a second night in a row, where they were met by security forces and armored vehicles.

A whistleblower’s allegations of government corruption sparked a public blowback against the former general. Picture credit: UNclimatechange /Flickr

A whistleblower’s allegations of government corruption sparked a public blowback against the former general. Picture credit: UNclimatechange /Flickr

The call for protests began after a former civilian contractor for the military, Mohamed Ali, 45, posted a video accusing the President and the military of corruption. Ali, who worked as a contractor for the government for 15 years, said he made his fortune by building luxury spaces for the military using taxpayer money.

While the Egyptian economy is struggling with external debt ranging from $46 billion to $106 billion during Sisi’s reign, the government has spent lavishly on palaces and hotels. Ali has accused the President of spending public money on buying properties for himself and his family.

“The system has made us all corrupt,” Ali said in one video. “We are going to change that system and install a proper one.”

Read More: US to Send $127m in New Funds to Help Rohingya Refugees

Sisi for his part has denied the allegations and called it “lies and slander.” Speaking at a youth conference in Cairo, he said: “Yes, I build presidential palaces and I will continue to build them but not for myself… I’m working to build a new Egypt.”

For most protesters though, Ali may have been a uniting force, but the frustration has been long-going.

“I protested because the way Sisi is ruling is wrong and disgraceful,” Ali Mohamed, 19, a resident of Cairo who live-streamed some of the Tahrir Square demonstrations on Friday, told the New York Times.

“People were just waiting for the opportunity to protest — Mohamed Ali’s videos are not the real reason why they did. The reason is that people wanted to take action.”

Sisi came to power in 2013 after successfully leading the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, through a military coup following mass protests. After he came to power, any public gathering of more than 10 people without government approval was effectively banned. His supporters claim that a tough stance was needed after the Arab Spring protests in 2011 that led to the toppling of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

According to BBC, at least 60,000 people, mostly supporters or members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi’s Islamist movement, have reportedly been jailed since Sisi took charge. Hundreds of people have been given death sentences by courts and according to activists, hundreds of people have also gone missing.

The country has observed a mass crackdown of dissenters under Sisi’s regime but defying the ban on protesting without permit, many responded to the call for protesting against alleged government corruption highlighting the growing anger in citizens. The Arabic hashtag that translates to “That’s enough el-Sissi” has been shared by at least one million Egyptians on Twitter.

Hello, World!

Middle EastSushmita Roy