Egypt’s president visits Britain to discuss terror and trade

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was in London today – his first visit as president – for talks with Cameron, and said at a joint press conference that the two had a “good mutual understanding” of how to align their responses.

The Labour leader said opening the No 10 doors to the military coup leader shows contempt for human rights – and threatens national security. Mass trials have also been used to convict others, notably in February this year when a judge sentenced the activist Ahmed Douma, a women’s rights defender Hend al-Nafea, and 228 others to life in prison simply for participating in peaceful protests.

“Approximately five people staged a demonstration at the location and tried to obstruct the front gates”. Can a disabled woman be snatched by security forces, denied access to a lawyer, and denied medical treatment for an injury obtained at a protest that left her wheelchair-bound?

“President al-Sisi’s arrival in the United Kingdom is key test of whether David Cameron is prepared to do more than roll out red carpets for authoritarian leaders”.

President of Egypt, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi would not back down on the country’s sweeping security laws.

“There have been horrifying mass death sentences since President al-Sisi came to power – a few after grossly unfair trials – and thousands have been detained in an attempt to quash all opposition”.

Several of the men staging the die-in wore white suits labelled “Democracy”, “Freedom” and “Human Rights” smattered with fake blood.

“There is a real roadmap for democracy in Egypt”, Sisi told BBC television ahead of his visit. As he told me in the interview, he regards it to be a fundamental human right for all Egyptians to have employment, a decent standard of living and access to medical care and education, and the only way to achieve this worthy goal is through economic development.

Andrew Smith, of Campaign Against Arms Trade, said the UK Government had suspended 49 military licences following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s democratically elected government in 2013, only for 24 of the suspensions to be lifted a year later.

The head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, Maha Azzam, also joined the protests against Sisi’s visit. Amnesty has documented a repeated pattern of excessive and unnecessary force by Egypt’s security forces.

The protesters wore T-shirts with the four-fingered “Rabia” logo, which is associated with those killed in the crackdown on the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo in 2013.

Sisi has maintained tight security around himself to overcome threats to his rule.

The Islamic State terror group’s Sinai affiliate has repeatedly claimed responsibility for the for the crashing of Kogalymavia Flight 9268, calling it a retaliation for Russia’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but the Russian and Egyptian governments have both dismissed the likelihood that the group could have taken down the plane.

The cause of the plane crash is still unverified.