Several international human rights groups criticized Egypt's human rights record ahead of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s visit to Berlin, slated for Wednesday and called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to address the mass trials and human rights violations in Egypt.
“We urge you in the strongest terms to make clear in your meetings with President al-Sisi, and in public remarks you or other German officials may make in connection with this visit, that the nature and extent of Germany’s relations with Egypt going forward will depend on the Egyptian authorities taking prompt and concrete measures to put an end to government policies that systematically violate Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law as well as the Egyptian Constitution of 2014,” said four groups in a joint letter to Merkel.
The groups included each of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
“German authorities are well aware of the terrible human rights situation in Egypt today,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director at Human Rights Watch. “Chancellor Merkel should speak out against Egyptian government policies like shutting down peaceful protests and mass arrests solely for alleged sympathy with the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Selmin Caliskan, secretary general of Amnesty International in Germany, said in a written letter, according to Anadolu Agency, “Detention conditions in overcrowded prisons and police stations are catastrophic and have fatal consequences. At least 124 prisoners have died since August 2013 because of ill-treatment, torture or denial of medical treatment,” Caliskan said in a written statement.”
The groups also urged Egypt release those sentenced in mass trials or jailed solely for alleged membership or sympathy with the Muslim Brotherhood, or retry them before civilian courts.
