Quelle: New York Times
Human rights abuses in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have reached new highs, yet the Western governments that trade with and arm Egypt have continued to pursue business as usual with the argument that regional security and economic interests trump all. Now, a stalled investigation into the abduction and murder of an Italian student has forced at least one of these countries, Italy, to reconsider its relationship. It is time for other Western democracies to reconsider theirs.
The brunt of Mr. Sisi’s crackdown has, of course, fallen on Egyptians, thousands of whom have been arrested, and many tortured and killed. Among the victims was Giulio Regeni, an Italian doctoral student at Cambridge University, whose badly battered body bearing all the hallmarks of the methods used by Egypt’s security forces was found on a roadside on Feb. 3, nine days after he mysteriously disappeared off a Cairo street.