Egyptian activist accuses Sisi of following in Mubarak’s footsteps
Human rights activist and lawyer Khalid Ali tells Al-Monitor that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime is bowing to the conditions of global financial institutions to shore up his own position.
At 40, Khalid Ali was the youngest candidate for the 2012 Egyptian presidential elections. An Egyptian lawyer and human rights activist, he gained fame by defending protesters in court. Among them were Alaa Abdel Fattah and Ahmad Abdul Rahman and 23 others, all of them January 25 activists arrested on charges of violating the anti-protest law in the Shura Council case.
In 1999, he co-founded and served as the executive director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, which provides free legal aid for human rights issues. He now heads the new Life and Freedom Party. The main goals of the party are protecting the January 25 Revolution’s achievements, rejecting violence and terrorism and avoiding civil oppression and religious radicalism. It also struggles for a civil democratic state and seeks to protect the people’s interests.
In his interview with Al-Monitor, he said that in terms of economic policy, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime is more “more savage” than President Hosni Mubarak’s, and that the Egyptian police forces do not differentiate between peaceful protesters and others. He added that Egypt will be further inflamed if Mubarak’s old tactics are used in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The text of the interview follows:
