Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, speaking on Tuesday said: "President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi should prioritize reforms to end serious human rights violations during his second term. Al-Sisi’s disdain for his citizens’ most basic rights marked his re-election campaign. In his final term in office, as mandated by the constitution, al-Sisi should change course and leave a positive legacy instead of being remembered as an autocrat who oversaw a human rights crisis”.
Whitson added: "Egypt’s allies such as the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the European Union, should urge al-Sisi to carry out reforms".
Al-Sisi effectively took power in July 2013 and became president in June 2014.
Rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have documented a host of serious abuses by Egyptian police, and the National Security Agency (NSA), the leading internal security force under the Interior Ministry, including routine and widespread torture of detainees.
Enforced disappearances, mistreatment in prisons, widespread torture, and probable extrajudicial killings notably increased after March 2015, when al-Sisi appointed Interior Minister Magdy Abd al-Ghaffar.
