Egypt’s glaring rights violations once again in global spotlight
The Egyptian government is being condemned for its new, and renewed, human rights abuses.
An Egyptian court will resume its deliberations May 23 in a long-running, on again, off again human rights case that has placed the country at the center of an international controversy — again.
The controversy revolves around a case that began in 2011 and supposedly ended in 2013, but that Egypt recently resurrected, apparently in response to being roundly criticized by world leaders for new, high-profile human rights violations.
In 2011, the government raided 17 foreign and Egyptian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Cairo, confiscating their funds, documents and equipment and detaining numerous workers, challenging the NGOs’ right to receive foreign funding.
In 2013, Egypt sentenced 43 people in that case, including 19 Americans, to one to five years in prison.
