MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2018) A prominent human rights watchdog on Monday expressed concern that members of Egyptian security forces involved in brutal dispersal of the August 2013 Rabaa sit-ins in Cairo have not been held to account even though five years have passed since the deadly events.
"Egyptian authorities have failed to investigate or prosecute a single member of the security forces five years after their systematic and widespread killing of largely peaceful protesters in Raba Square in Cairo � Hundreds of protesters have been convicted under unfair charges in mass trials stemming from the protests," the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.
Instead of prosecuting those responsible for the violence, President Abdel Fattah Sisi, in July 2018, approved a law helping to exempt them from accountability for the 2013 events, which probably amounts to crimes against humanity, according to the watchdog.
The legislation "empowers the president to grant military commanders ministerial status and �diplomatic impunity when traveling outside the country," the watchdog clarified. The law also provides the officers with "immunity" from prosecution or interrogation in connection with any event between July 3, 2013, and January 2016, unless the Supreme Council of Armed Forces authorizes it, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, Egyptian courts have issued dozens of preliminary death sentences against protesters, the watchdog noted.
"Five years on from the Raba massacre, the only response from authorities has been to try to insulate those responsible for these crimes from justice. The response from Egypts allies to the crimes at Raba and to the lack of justice for the victims has been complete silence. Without justice, Raba remains an open wound. Those responsible for the mass killings of protesters shouldnt count on being able to shield themselves from accountability forever," Sarah Leah Whitson, the middle East director at Human Rights Watch said, as quoted in the statement.
The watchdog stressed that the fact-finding Egyptian committee in charge of collecting evidence on the issue had mostly put blame for the casualties on protesters, despite admitting that the security forces failed to target exclusively armed people.
In July 2013, amid the wave of public discontent over the Muslim Brotherhood rule, the Egyptian army ousted President Mohammed Morsi and declared a transition period in the country. Morsi's supporters staged mass protests, demanding his reinstatement. Hundreds of Egyptians were killed in subsequent riots and clashes, including August 2013 Rabaa massacre, when at least 813 people were killed in a brutal dispersal of a pro-Morsi sit-in in Cairo. Almost all Muslim Brotherhood leaders have since been jailed and charged with undermining state principles and attempts to provoke chaos in the country.
