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Egypt

Amnesty International Blasts Egypt, Says Sisi Pardons Just A Guise

Though the Egyptian president has authorized the release of some 100 political prisoners, the global human rights organization says thousands more are languishing inside prisons for doing no more than engaging in peaceful protest.

Pardoned Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy in Cairo on Aug. 29
Pardoned Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy in Cairo on Aug. 29

CAIRO — Human rights organization Amnesty International has advised the international community not to be fooled by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's "veneer of reform and empty promises."

Sisi issued presidential pardons for 100 young people on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, including activists Yara Sallam and Sanaa Seif, and journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, who were sentenced to three years last August in the internationally condemned Al Jazeera case.

Some of them were released immediately, and others after a slight delay, such as Salwa Mehrez, whose name was listed wrongly in the presidential decree. But in a statement Monday, the international rights organization specifically highlighted the cases of seven activists who still remain behind bars.

Nahed Abdel Hamid, Momen Abdel Tawab, Menna Mostafa, Abrar al-Anany, Mamdouh Gamal Eddin, Mohamed Hossam Eddin and Asmaa Abdel Aziz Shehata are still in prison due to bureaucratic issues, according to lawyer Ragia Omran.

Amnesty argued that the decree clearly states that all those pardoned should be released immediately unless they have been sentenced in other cases.

Said Boumedouha, Deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International, says that most of those pardoned "should never have been locked up in the first place, because they were peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly."

He adds, "Given the authorities' intolerance of peaceful dissent, the space vacated in prison cells by those freed in the pardon will be filled up again all too soon," as political prisoners are used as "bargaining chips," and only released when politically expedient, or to deflect international criticism of Egypt's human rights record.

There were also others not included in the pardons who should have been, Amnesty asserts, including Alaa Abd Al Fattah, Ahmed Douma, Ahmed Maher and Mohamed Adel, as well as Mahienour al-Massry, detained photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (known as Shawkan) and student Mahmoud Hussein.

"Amnesty International is aware of thousands more people across the country who have been languishing in Egyptian prisons under President al-Sisi's rule, including other journalists and activists," the organization's statement reads. It was released just hours before Sisi was scheduled to address the UN General Assembly in New York.

"If the President wants to convince the UN General Assembly in his speech today that Egypt's appalling human rights record is a thing of the past, he will have to implement meaningful reforms," Boumedouha says.

He urges the United States and France to halt the transfer of small arms and ammunition to Egypt, "and other policing equipment used to commit mass violations" against protesters.

"The international community must not let Sisi and the Egyptian government off the hook because of the recent pardons."

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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