Turkish prosecutors investigate Egypt's President Sisi over 'crimes against humanity, torture'
Prosecutors in Istanbul are investigating allegations of torture and crimes against humanity committed by Egypt's president and officials.
2 min read
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been accused of crimes against humanity [Getty/ Archive]
Turkish prosecutors have opened an investigation into Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and 29 Egyptian officials for alleged crimes against humanity, human rights lawyer Gulden Sonmez said on Wednesday.
Sonmez is representing Egyptian student Omar Gamal Metwally Ibrahim who had previously been arrested and detained by Egyptian authorities.
"Omar survived the attempted killings and executions that took place in Rabaa Square in Cairo, and witnessed hundreds of killings and extrajudicial executions there and in other squares and fields. He is a university student who was detained illegally in Egypt," Sonmez told reporters, referring to the Sisi regime's killing of over a thousand Egyptian protesters in August 2013.
"Although Omar Ibrahim was a young man, he was detained in four police stations, seven prisons, and two intelligence centres, for a period of 3 years in Egypt. He was severely tortured while in detention and his body is still suffering from permanent damage," she said.
Sonmez is representing Egyptian student Omar Gamal Metwally Ibrahim who had previously been arrested and detained by Egyptian authorities.
"Omar survived the attempted killings and executions that took place in Rabaa Square in Cairo, and witnessed hundreds of killings and extrajudicial executions there and in other squares and fields. He is a university student who was detained illegally in Egypt," Sonmez told reporters, referring to the Sisi regime's killing of over a thousand Egyptian protesters in August 2013.
"Although Omar Ibrahim was a young man, he was detained in four police stations, seven prisons, and two intelligence centres, for a period of 3 years in Egypt. He was severely tortured while in detention and his body is still suffering from permanent damage," she said.
Sonmez added that her client's brothers and father remain in detention in Egypt.
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"Abdel-Rahman, Omar's brother, has been imprisoned for six years and is at risk of losing his life due to his health condition.
His other brother, Abdulaziz, has been imprisoned for three years and there has been no news on his condition for 30 days.
Both were severely tortured using various methods of maltreatment.
After leading the 2013 coup that overthrew Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi, the then-military chief Sisi launched a widespread crackdown on dissent in Egypt.
More than a thousand of Morsi's supporters were killed in the Rabaa Massacre in 2013 and thousands more members of the group have been detained after the Brotherhood was banned and deemed a terror organisation.
Egyptian authorities regularly raid and kill suspects they say are part of armed affiliates.
Sisi's regime has also been accused of the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of people in such "shootouts".
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