Egypt President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said on Monday he does not mind criticism, stressing that it’s his job to placate disgruntled youths, a day after a cartoonist was arrested for what critics suggested was a retaliation for caricatures mocking the former army chief.
Islam Gawish was released earlier on Monday without being charged, having been cleared by the prosecution of having ties with a news website which security authorities said was operating without a license.
Gawish, who gained fame on social media for posting satirical cartoons on his Facebook page, said that an officer “unofficially” accused him of insulting the regime.
“I’m not upset of Gawish or anyone … No one can speak on my behalf and say that I get upset from criticism,” Sisi said in a phone interview with Al-Qahera Al-Youm show on Orbit channel.
“If I accept being in such a position, I must bear all the consequences. There is no such thing as all people must agree on something.
“Every day, the 90 million people in Egypt find many things which make them uncomfortable like the case of Gawish … Such things happen, and this is natural in a country which was in a revolutionary state for four years.”
Angry youths
Sisi said he phoned the television show to speak about the saga of the Ultras, hardcore football fans who chanted against Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Sisi’s predecessor as an army chief, and the interior ministry while commemorating the fourth anniversary of the 2012 Port Said disaster on Monday.
Seventy-two fans of Egypt’s most popular club Ahly were killed in the coastal city after being attacked by rival Masry supporters following the end of a league match exactly four years ago.
The Ultras accused Tantawi, Egypt’s de facto ruler at the time, of complicity in the country’s worst-ever football tragedy. Eleven people were given death sentences and more than a dozen were handed lengthy prison terms over their role in the disaster but the diehard fans still believe the real culprits remain untouched.
Nine police officials among 73 defendants are standing retrial on charges related to the killing of the young fans, with final verdicts yet to be returned and executed.
“I call on the Ultras to select 10 of their members whom they trust to be part of a committee to look into all the details concerning this case and determine what more can be done,” Sisi said.
The police — despite a heavy presence at the Port Said Stadium — showed a great deal of passiveness while home fans were attacking the visitor stands en masse, raising suspicions they had a hand in orchestrating the disaster.
Already no love lost between both sides thanks to match-related tensions, the tragic incident brought accumulating enmity between the police and Ultras groups to a peak.
“In events with large crowds, it’s always difficult to determine the truth behind what happened,” Sisi added before listing some of the incidents which pitted protesters against security forces during the tumultuous years that followed the ouster of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak following an 18-day uprising in 2011.
Many disgruntled youths are unhappy with what they deem heavy-handed practices by security forces. Scores of Islamist, liberal and secular activists have been jailed since Sisi was elected as president in June 2014.
Many fell foul of a restrictive protest law as Egypt’s interior ministry cracked down on dissent. Sisi repeatedly said he highly regarded human rights but that more pressing issues, such as the frail economy, should be the main source of concern.
“It’s us who are not able to properly communicate with them [angry youths]. We are the ones who are unable to find common ground. I’m exerting lots of efforts in this matter and I’m aware that I will need time,” he added.
“Finding the balance between security measures and human rights is a sensitive and delicate issue which needs lots of efforts.”
source: Ahram Online
