Alwaght- Egypt's military-backed regime has arrested nearly 400 people in the days leading up to and during April 25 protests in Cairo against a government decision to hand over control of two Red Sea islands to the Saudi regime.
Human Rights Watch, citing witnesses and media reports, said Wednesday that Egyptian police arrested lawyers, journalists and activists.
It cited the Front for the Defense of Egyptian Protesters, an independent rights group, as saying that police arrested at least 286 people on Monday, the day of the protests.
A draconian Egyptian law passed in 2013, following current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's rise to power on the back of the nation's military, essentially prohibits protests against the government in power.
The protests took place on Sinai Liberation Day, which has been set by activists as a date for protests over the recent Saudi island deal.
Sinai Liberation Day, 25 April, marks the 1982 withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Sinai Peninsula.
A government decision this month to cede control to Saudi Arabia of the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, near South Sinai, sparked protests on 15 April, with thousands of demonstrators protesting all over the North African State. The El-Sisi regime is reportedly receiving USD 20 billion from the Saudi monarchy in return for giving up the sovereignty of the two strategic islands.
El-Sissi is witnessing the most vocal and angry objection to his rule since he took power. All over the country, Egyptians are gathering and chanting some of the same slogans from the January 2011 revolution—such as “the people want the fall of the regime” and “down with military rule.”
