The famous Egyptian author, Alaa Al-Aswany, excoriated the regime of President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi in a recent interview to the liberal-leaning Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour.
El-Sissi is being accused of promoting military officials to key civilian positions, corruption and persecuting civilians. Al-Aswany, who gained critical acclaim with his novel "The Yacoubian Building," is considered a voice of reason in Egypt and many in the country heed his opinions. On the eve of former President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, Aswany published a series of articles about the situation in Egypt and foresaw the public unrest. Al-Aswany is being accused of harming the president, the justice system and the army and was forced to flee abroad, from where he continues to voice his views.
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According to Al-Aswany, the persecutions have reached absurd levels. For instance, Khaled Lutfi, a bookshop worker, was sent to five years in prison because he sold "The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel," a book by Professor Emeritus at Haifa University Uri Bar-Joseph, about alleged Israeli spy Ashraf Marwan. Social media sites in Egypt are inundated with accounts of rampant corruption, criticism of the military's involvement in the economy, and harm to the justice system. The Egyptian army's spokesman recently admitted that the military monitors – rather than manages – some 2,600 national projects that employ nearly 5 million people.
El-Sissi is also accused of intervening in the justice system. He annulled the tradition whereby judges in the constitutional, administrative and appeals courts are appointed based on their seniority. He has also worked to appoint loyalists to those positions.
But the most severe criticism is over the sharp rise in the number of executions. According to Amnesty International, more than 700 people have been put to death since el-Sissi rose to power. Egypt carried out the sixth-most executions in the world in 2018.
Thus far, el-Sissi has managed to repel the criticism leveled against him by the United States and Europe by arguing that the right to human life supersedes the right to human rights, particularly while Egypt is fighting a war on terror. The West has been assuaged to the point of easing its pressure, but this could change as claims against el-Sissi persist.
Although el-Sissi has tried justifying his measures with religious excuses and assertions that his legislative initiatives are predicated on Shariah law, it seems he isn't grasping the magnitude of the trauma to regular Egyptians. Several days ago, a few hundred Egyptians protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square, pelting el-Sissi with the same slogans once aimed at Mubarak: "Irhal" (get out).
The issue of human rights in Egypt has always been the regime's Achilles' heel. It has also been a source of tension with US administrations. El-Sissi cannot continue harming civilians, and at some point, the international community will demand he terminate draconian legislation based on Shariah, spearhead judicial reforms, introduce transparency, and fight corruption. He must also bear in mind that the old-guard regime apparatchiks, on whom he relies, are approaching retirement age. The youth decrying him in Tahrir Square are the next wave. The future is in front of them.
