Egypt, an ‘open-air prison’ for critics – AI

Amnesty International on Wednesday accused the Egyptian government of mounting a crackdown on freedom of expression.

Launching a campaign called “Egypt, an Open-Air Prison for Critics,” Amnesty International said it wanted supporters around the world to show their solidarity with Egyptians detained for expressing their views by writing to the Cairo government to end the “persecution.”

The London-based advocacy group said Egypt has launched the largest crackdown on critics in its modern history in the five years since the military ouster of the country’s first freely elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi.

According to Amnesty’s North Africa Campaigns Director, Najia Bounaim, it is currently more dangerous to criticize the government in Egypt than at any time in the country’s recent history.

An Egyptian court earlier this month sentenced 75 prominent members and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, as part of a mass trial that included 739 people charged after the violent dispersal of a protest camp in support of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

The court also sentenced the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme leader, Mohammed Badie, in addition to 46 others, to life in prison.

Amnesty said at least 28 journalists were also among those detained since December 2017.