, Columnist
Egypt’s War On Civil Society Is Self-Defeating
But the release of three rights campaigners is a reassuring sign that international pressure works.
No more indulgences from the White House.
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After a major international outcry, Egyptian authorities have released three prominent human-rights activists. They were arrested last month after meeting with a group of Western diplomats to discuss civil liberties in the Arab world’s most populous country.
It’s not clear what President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi is hoping to gain from the crackdown, but it seems to have backfired. The latest detentions have drawn much-needed attention to a broad campaign of repression against civil society in Egypt.