(AFP PHOTO / STR)
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has once again lashed out at the comments of an international NGO, this time for a report on the treatment of the country’s youth.
The ministry expressed its “rejection of the full report by Amnesty International which falsely claimed” Egyptian authorities are targeting the country’s youth via “mass arrests”. The Ministry said that a report released Tuesday by the organisation is full of “lies”.
“[The report] represents a clear and flagrant challenge to the will of the Egyptian people and their determination to move towards a better future, and ignores the principles of justice and due judicial process guaranteed for all,” the ministry said.
On Tuesday, leading human rights NGO Amnesty International released a briefing entitled “Generation Jail: Egypt’s youth go from protest to prison”, arguing that “mass arrests” have replaced “mass protests”. The report focuses on 14 cases of young people who were arbitrarily arrested and detained, and comes to the conclusion that “the country has reverted fully to being a police state”.
“Two years after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi, mass protests have been replaced by mass arrests,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has frequently responded to reports by organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and even a recent US government report, claiming they do not properly cover the situation in Egypt.
The ministry said Amnesty International “lacks credibility”, and uses “unknown and undocumented sources” to make conclusions about Egypt’s affairs, while ignoring official numbers from the government.
The ministry highlighted the pre-Ramadan presidential pardoning of 165 young individuals who were imprisoned on criminal charges as an example of positive policies which are not reported. Amnesty International also allegedly turns “a blind eye to acts of violence and terrorism” in Egypt, which raises questions about the relationship between “terrorist groups and such organisations”, the ministry said.
