Egypt rejects HRW report on poor human rights record

Egypt's permanent human rights committee has criticized the Human Rights Watch (HRW) for its report on dismal human rights record in the Arab country, saying the report “lacks credibility, and objectivity,” Press TV reports.

An official statement by the committee on Thursday said the HRW report was a “deliberate attempt to distort realities” aimed at “destabilizing Egypt.”

In its June 8 report which; coincided with the first anniversary of the inauguration of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, the HRW slammed the “flagrant abuse of human rights” during Sisi’s one year of rule in the most populated Arab country.

Sisi, the former army chief, rose to power after a coup against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically president in July 2013.

The Egyptian human rights committee, which is headed by transitional justice minister Ibrahim al-Heneidy, said it was totally dismayed by the HRW report, condemning what it called clear attempts "incite the international community against Egypt, and its people” through “undocumented, and baseless information.”

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement on Tuesday, saying the "politicized” report "lacks the basic rules of precision and objectivity.”

Egypt's Foreign Ministry and human rights committee have criticized the HRW for its “silence on terrorism” in Egypt. They say Cairo has been forced to crack down on "terrorists" who have endangered the lives of citizens and security forces.

The HRW report, titled “Egypt: Year of Abuses Under al-Sisi,” accused the Egyptian leader of presiding over flagrant abuse of rights since taking office.

It accused Sisi of undermining the achievements of the 2011 uprising that toppled Egypt’s longtime dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

“Sisi and his cabinet, governing by decree in the absence of an elected parliament, have provided near total impunity for security force abuses and issued a raft of laws that severely curtailed civil and political rights,” the Monday report said.

Rights groups say Sisi has established a regime more repressive than that of the Mubarak, putting thousands of people, including notable rights activists, behind bars. The Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of people to death, including Morsi, in speedy and mass trials that have been described by the United Nations as unprecedented in history.

The heavy-handed crackdown has been mainly focused on members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed party whose members include Morsi and his Cabinet officials. 

“What makes it worse is that Western governments that subordinated human rights in their relations with Egypt during the Mubarak era seem ready to repeat their mistake,” the HRW report said.

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