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(The longer al-Sisi stays in office, the more foolish leftist protests
against the Muslim Brotherhood government appears.)
NY Times, May 15, 2020
Outside Egypt, Critics Speak Freely. Inside, Families Pay the Price.
By Declan Walsh
CAIRO — When a popular Egyptian blogger shared gruesome video of a
military officer severing the finger of an unidentified body and setting
the body on fire, it was some of the most shocking footage to emerge
from Sinai, where Egypt’s military has been battling Islamist militants
in a hidden war.
As an exiled dissident, Abdullah el-Sherif could afford to be bold
enough to broadcast the video in March. But days later, security agents
burst into the homes of his relatives in the seaside city of Alexandria
and arrested his two brothers on terrorism charges.
Now Mr. el-Sherif is in Qatar, safely beyond the reach of Egypt’s
security forces, while his brothers languish at a maximum-security
prison outside Cairo.
The Egyptian government, which has stifled nearly all criticism at home,
is now trying to silence critics abroad by jailing their family members
in Egypt, human rights groups say. Since early last year, it has
arrested the relatives of at least 15 dissidents in exile.
Security agents have broken down front doors, confiscated money and
passports, forced parents to denounce their children on television, and
detained fathers and brothers, several of whom have been charged with
terrorism and imprisoned.
“It’s nothing less than collective punishment,” said Amr Magdi of Human
Rights Watch, which since 2016 has documented raids on the families of
14 exiled dissidents. At least 20 relatives have been detained or
prosecuted.
Mr. el-Sherif, whose YouTube videos often amass two or three million
views, said Egyptian officials told him that if he stopped his critical
broadcasts, his brothers would be released.
“I feel really bad,” he said. “I’ve lost my appetite. My mother and
father call all the time, crying on the phone, asking me to quit. I
don’t know what to do.”
The head of Egypt’s State Information Service did not respond to a
request for comment.
Egypt’s rulers have long employed such tactics against the families of
suspected drug traffickers and jihadists. But as President Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi has cranked up the repression in recent years, he has broadened
his focus to target the families of exiled dissidents, journalists and
cultural figures.
One recent case involved an exiled actor, Mohammed Shuman, who delivered
an emotional appeal on Facebook from Turkey for the release of his
brother and his son who, he said, had been jailed in retaliation for his
role in a movie that highlighted police brutality.
Inside Egypt, Mr. el-Sisi jailed opponents and largely subjugated the
news media. His intelligence services have acquired stakes in the
largest private TV networks, blocked over 500 websites and even censored
the scripts of the highly popular TV serials that Egyptians are
currently lapping up during the holy month of Ramadan.
But his iron grip on Egyptian media may have inadvertently helped raise
the profile of news outlets and bloggers based abroad.
Egypt’s nominally independent private TV stations all offer similar,
pro-state news and commentary. Talk show hosts seem to sing from the
same hymnal. News bulletins can have a whiff of Soviet-era control,
while government critics are branded as agents of the outlawed Muslim
Brotherhood, or stooges of rival Qatar.
When the Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mohamed Morsi, died in June, every
Egyptian TV station led with the same 42-word bulletin, evidently
dictated by the security agencies.
Egyptian viewers, bored with the homogeneous programming or in search of
unfiltered news, are increasingly turning to foreign media as an
alternative.
In addition to YouTube channels like Mr. el-Sherif’s, there is anecdotal
evidence that many Egyptians quietly tune into opposition TV stations
like Turkey-based Mekameleen, which is sympathetic to the banned Muslim
Brotherhood, and Al Sharq.
Billboards for Ramadan TV series along a highway in Cairo last month.
Egypt censors those shows and exerts control over news programs on
nominally private TV stations.Credit...Sima Diab for The New York Times
“The regime is handing a present to its Islamist opponents,” said
Ezzedine C. Fishere, a lecturer on Middle East politics at Dartmouth
College. “If all the TV channels say the same thing, and all the
newspapers have the same headline, you need at least someone who is
making a joke about the president or the regime. And they find it in
these outlets.”
Like stations in Egypt, outlets abroad sometimes offer highly partisan
news coverage that includes false information. But they also offer
forbidden fare — satires that gently mock Mr. el-Sisi, video clips from
the sealed-off Sinai and snippets of information about Mr. el-Sisi’s
life and family.
It was YouTube videos by Mohamed Ali, a disgruntled construction
contractor living in Spain, that set off protests in Cairo in September
against the palaces Mr. el-Sisi is building for himself across Egypt.
Mr. el-Sherif, the video blogger, stoked the outrage with a leaked video
taken inside a palace under construction in El Alamein. Several weeks
later, security agents forced Mr. el-Sherif’s father to publicly
denounce him on television.
“Those who are unhappy with what he is saying are upset with us, too,”
said Mr. el-Sherif’s father, Muhammad el-Sherif, fighting back tears in
footage broadcast on pro-state channels. “We are just ordinary people.”
The government has dismissed Mr. el-Sherif’s slick broadcasts as little
more than agitprop sponsored by its enemy, the outlawed Muslim
Brotherhood, and its foreign rival, Qatar. Mr. el-Sherif said he
financed his work through his job as an editor with an Arab TV station,
which he declined to name, and through audience revenues from YouTube.
Haytham Abokhalil, an anchor with Al Sharq TV in Istanbul, aired leaked
photos of Mr. el-Sisi’s wife and sons in October. Days later, security
agents dragged his brother, Amr Abokhalil, a psychiatrist, from his
clinic as patients watched. Dr. Abokhalil is now being held in prison.
“My brother doesn’t even approve of my work,” said Haytham Abokhalil,
who described himself as a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood. “His
arrest is a punishment, a message that what I am doing has a price.”
Mr. el-Sherif said he recently learned that an Egyptian court had
sentenced him to life imprisonment because of his YouTube broadcasts. It
was “painful” to know that his brothers are in the country’s main
maximum security prison on his account, he said. But he doubted that,
even if he were to quit his broadcasts, they would be released.
“I know this army,” he said.
Nada Rashwan contributed reporting.
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