On 17 April 2016, French President François Hollande will travel to Egypt for an official visit. His goal, among others, the negotiation of new arms contracts with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
Could human rights issues be absent from the agenda even though this trip comes at a decisive moment ? Nearly 400 Egyptian human rights defenders are on the verge of being condemned to prison terms up to 25 years in jail. The gravity of the repression against civil society, at the cost of an increasing use of torture, extra-judicial killings, abusive detentions, enforced disappearances and violence, is unprecedented in Egypt’s recent history (find all the key figures of the repression in the infographic below).
We are calling on the French authorities to take on the issue of human rights in Egypt. Shying away from this on the pretext of strategic and military interests could lead to heavy responsibility for the French government.
