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German Parliament Cancels Invitation to Sisi Citing ‘Human Rights Abuses’

May 20, 2015
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi addresses the 69th Session of the General Assembly in 2014.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi addresses the 69th Session of the General Assembly in 2014.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has played down the significance of Germany’s Parliament cancelling an invitation to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, stating that Egypt had never requested a meeting with the President of the Parliament.

According to AFP and Der Spiegel, Norbert Lammert sent a letter to Egypt’s Ambassador to Berlin, His Excellency Mohamed Hegazy, in which he cancelled a planned meeting with President Sisi due to human rights abuses and the lack of parliamentary elections, as had been promised by the June 30 roadmap.

Citing Der Spiegel, independent English-language Egyptian newspaper Mada Masr reported that Lammert, who had planned to meet with Sisi in June, condemned the recent death sentences in Egypt, particularly against Egypt’s former head of Parliament.

“Instead of holding the long-awaited parliamentary elections, we have been witnessing months of systematic prosecution of opposition groups, mass arrests, convictions to lengthy prison terms and issuing a shocking number of death sentences, including against former head of the Egyptian Parliament Saad al-Katatny,” said Lammert, according to Mada Masr.

Egypt's deposed President Mohammed Morsi met with Chancellor Merkel during a visit to Berlin in 2013.
Egypt’s deposed President Mohammed Morsi met with Chancellor Merkel during a visit to Berlin in 2013.

Despite Lammert’s comments, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry denied that Egypt had asked for a meeting with the German Parliament, adding that it was the German side that had scheduled a meeting.

“The Egyptian side did not ask for nor look forward to a meeting between the two officials,” said Ambassador Hegazy, reported state-media Al-Ahram.

Egypt’s Presidency confirmed that Egypt had never asked to meet with the German Parliament and that Sisi’s schedule has not yet been announced, according to state-media Al-Ahram.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry has not confirmed whether it had invited Sisi to meet the Parliament’s President nor has it confirmed whether Chancellor Angela Merkel will alter her planned meeting with the Egyptian President.

Comments (14)

  1. Fischer Andreas says:

    Well done! Dictators should not be invited!

    1. twinkle says:

      He isn’t a dictator. Sisi is very popular here.

    2. Bahi Hussein says:

      He isn’t a dictator 😀

    3. Other Mona says:

      Hitler was democratically elected. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t a dictator.

    4. Sina says:

      Hitler was never elected no

    5. Other Mona says:

      Care to elaborate? Do you mean the election of 1933, after which his NSDAP came to power, or his failed coup d’etat in 1923?

    6. Menna Agha says:

      He is a dictator, with some self-enslaved opportunists and poor misled Egyptians as his fans…

  2. Commander_Chico says:

    Juan Cole said it – Egypt is going to end up like North Korea, isolated.

    1. Kilamanshankone says:

      LOOL – far from it mate

    2. We (The Egyptians) are already there, even before N. Korea. “People deserve their rulers” i.e. ignorant people deserve their dictators. We (The Egyptians) are VERY ignorant. Just read the comments posted by the pro-Sisi.