Egypt Refutes Amnesty Claims, Calling Them Biased, Politicized

Nawal Sayed

State Information Service (SIS) released a statement on Saturday refuting the latest report about Egypt issued by the Amnesty International (AI) Organization and accused it of being biased and politicized.

SIS statement stated that, “The recent handling of some International Human Rights NGOs of Egyptian affairs can only be characterized by blatant contradiction, lack of objectivity and a tendency to adopt allegations that are not based on any genuine human rights reference.”

Egypt witnessed dozens of rallies on Friday in which thousands of citizens expressed their support to the government and political leadership.

Earlier, pro-banned-Muslim Brotherhood group called for chaotic and violent protests across the country. Few people believed the terrorist group and took to streets, while most of the Egyptians did not.

In this regard, SIS responded to the Amnesty accusing its report of “having a biased, political and tendentious nature.”

“AI accused the Egyptian authorities of depriving citizens of their right to freedom of movement and peaceful assembly; this accusation was based on the closure of several roads and 4 out 53 Metro stations in Greater Cairo,” the statement read.

Protests in Egypt

According to the Chairman of the Egyptian Railway Authority the reason behind the closure of the Metro stations was due to maintenance.

However even if we assume that this measure was taken to protect national security, it does not contradict the right to freedom of movement guaranteed by international human rights instruments and those very instruments have given states the right to place restrictions on this right to protect their national security.

Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that:

Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.

Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.

The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject to any restrictions except those which are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present Covenant. Point No.3 of article 12 in the ICCPR granted States the right to restrict this right under certain circumstances among them preserving national security.

Amnesty Behavior to Egypt vs. France

Moreover, SIS defended the above mentioned action by referring to the French example when it took same measures to protect the national security of the state.

“AI did not make any such comments (Like the ones it made on Egypt) on France despite the fact that French authorities have shutdown dozens of Metro and TGV stations and redirected bus routes in Paris on almost weekly basis for nearly a year due to the outbreak of the yellow vest protests,” the statement added.

Recently, the French authorities closed 30 Metro Stations, a number of TGV stations and changed dozens of bus routes on the 21st of September due to demonstrations staged by the yellow vests and other rallies calling for the reform of the pension system.

Describing AI’s different responses to similar actions by Cairo and Paris as a “paradox”, SIS doubted the real motives behind issuing such accusations against Egypt that are not based on any convincing evidence or proof.

“AI did not direct the same accusations against France or Britain or any other countries despite the similarity between the situations with their different details,” the statement wondered.

https://see.news/european-watchdog-rebukes-french-police-over-yellow-vest-violent-response/