Cameron, don’t invite Egyptian dictator Sisi, British Labourites say

This 26 January 2019 video says about itself:

Egypt: Footage shows shot protester Shaimaa al-Sabbagh

The BBC’s Orla Guerin: “She went to lay a wreath in Tahrir Square, she never made it”. The clashes follow the death of activist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, who was killed during a march in Cairo on Saturday.

Another video says about itself:

Egyptian Female Activist Shaima al-Sabbagh Killed By Police In Tahrir Square Protest

24 January 2015

Shocking Moment: female socialist activist is gunned down by police during demonstrations on 4th anniversary of Arab Spring [against] Hosni Mubarak

A woman was killed on Saturday in Cairo after the police fired shotgun pellets at a handful of socialist activists marching to Tahrir Square with flowers to commemorate the hundreds of demonstrators killed there during the revolution that began on Jan 25 2011, witnesses said.

A health ministry spokesman said Shaima al-Sabbagh died of birdshot wounds, which fellow protesters said were fired by police to disperse the march. Al Sabbagh who was said to be 34 years old with a five year old son, was shot while she peacefully marched towards the Tahrir Square to lay a commemorative wreath of roses.

Egyptian activists shared graphic images of Ms. Sabbagh’s last moments on social networks. Photographs and video recorded before the police moved in seemed to show the protesters, including Ms. Sabbagh, standing peacefully outside the Air France KLM office in Talaat Harb Square near Tahrir. As officers charged at the protesters, guns drawn, shots rang out and Ms. Sabbagh fell to the pavement. Al-Sabbagh was taken to a hospital where she was declared dead.

From daily The Independent in Britain today:

Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour wants the government to cancel its invitation to Egypt’s Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi

by Evan Bartlett

Two senior figures in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour shadow cabinet have added their names to a letter calling on the government to withdraw its invitation to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the shadow secretary of state for international development, are among 55 signatories to an open letter in Tuesday’s Guardian newspaper.

The letter states that the signatories – which include politicians, journalists, activists and academics – are “concerned to hear that the government has invited the Egyptian dictator, Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to visit the UK” which could happen as early as next week.

“We believe it violates the British values which the government claims to champion to welcome a ruler who has overthrown an elected government and instituted a regime of terror which has thrown back the cause of democracy in Egypt and the wider Middle East many years.”

Corbyn is also believed to be opposed to the invitation of Sisi. Speaking to Middle East Eye in August, the Labour leader said:

I would not have invited [Sisi] to the UK because of my concerns over the use of the death penalty in Egypt and the treatment of people who were part of the former government of Morsi, which was elected, and the continued imprisonment of President Morsi.

Jeremy Corbyn

The Labour leader was criticised by the Saudi ambassador to London on Monday, in an article for the Telegraph that human rights campaigners called “disingenuous, evasive and intimidatory”, for apparently “breaching respect” after calling on the Conservative government to cancel a prison training contract with the Saudi regime – which it did last week.

The invitation to Sisi was extended in July, the day after the Egyptian regime upheld a death sentence on former democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.

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