German parliament speaker declines to meet Egypt's Sisi

BERLIN 

German Parliament Speaker Norbert Lammert announced Tuesday that he has cancelled a planned meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during his planned visit to Berlin next month, due to human rights violations in Egypt.

Lammert’s office said in a written statement that the parliament speaker has informed Egyptian embassy in Berlin about his decision not to meet el-Sisi during a visit scheduled for early June.

“Despite expectations from Egypt to schedule a date for the long-awaited parliamentary elections, what we are witnessing in recent months is systematic persecution of opposition groups, mass arrests, convictions to lengthy prison terms and an incredible number of death sentences, which include former parliament speaker al-Katatni,” the statement said.

“Given this situation, which contributes neither to domestic peace nor to the democratization of the country, Lammert sees for the time being no ground for a meeting with President el-Sisi,” it added.

On Saturday, an Egyptian court referred 122 out 166 defendants -- including Egypt's first elected president Mohamed Morsi -- to the grand mufti to consider possible death sentences against them over charges of involvement in espionage and a mass jailbreak during Egypt's 2011 revolution.

Most death sentences handed by Egyptian courts are commuted into prison terms.

Last year, hundreds of Egyptians were sentenced to death but rulings on only a few dozen were actually upheld, with the rest being converted into 25-year imprisonment.

Last month, Morsi and 12 co-defendants were each sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly mobilizing supporters to “intimidate, detain and torture” dozens of anti-Morsi protesters during clashes outside eastern Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.

Morsi currently faces multiple criminal trials on charges that include espionage and “insulting the judiciary”, charges he says are politically motivated.

Since the military coup in July 2013, Egyptian security forces have launched a relentless crackdown on dissent that has targeted both Islamists and secularists, leaving hundreds dead and thousands behind bars.