Mendel stressed, while hosting the episode (20/10/2020) of the "Without Borders" program, that the reality of rights and freedoms during the era of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was bad, but it became worse and freedom of expression in the country declined with the arrival of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to He prevailed.
The international human rights defender refused to describe the performance of human rights organizations as weak or as incapable of improving the reality of freedoms in Egypt, which is what prompted American and European lawmakers to direct Sisi's memos demanding the release of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, stressing that the Sisi regime is considered one of the difficult systems that do not respond to the demands of international human rights organizations .
Mendel said that the move of American and European lawmakers came in conjunction with the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, and fearing for the lives of these detainees, but human rights organizations realize that despite the need to release political detainees for fear of their lives from the Corona virus, they are convinced that these people should not be behind bars at all. Because they did not commit any crime or sin.
With regard to the reality of freedoms in Saudi Arabia, Mendel indicated that the Saudi human rights file has long been considered retreating and weak, but it has worsened in recent years, especially after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country's consulate in Istanbul.
The Executive Director of Law and Democracy criticized the weak international position towards Saudi Arabia after this crime, but he placed the greatest blame on US President Donald Trump, who overlooked this heinous crime in pursuit of economic gains, stressing that the United States witnessed the largest decline in its human rights performance during the Trump era, He expressed his hope that this performance would change in the event that the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, wins, noting that the Democrats' performance is better than the Republicans, and that Trump was the worst performer ever.
Mendel said that the reality of freedoms in the world has witnessed a retreat in recent years, but it has been worse in the Middle East region, and he rejected the justification of some for accepting tyrannical regimes and abandoning freedom of expression in order to obtain stability, and said that the stability brought by tyrannical regimes is temporary, not permanent, citing an example. On that, what happened in Syria, Iraq and Libya.
Although he stressed the ugliness of the crime that the French teacher was subjected to due to displaying offensive images to the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, he criticized the teacher's behavior and displaying these pictures and provoking the feelings of a group of people, and said that he could express freedom of opinion and expression in a way that does not provoke others, and does not It thus leads to unacceptable reactions.
Mendel acknowledged that many regimes around the world sought to exploit the Corona pandemic to restrict the freedom of expression of people to express their opinions, stressing that freedom of expression is guaranteed by international laws, and that these laws have set specific and very restrictive conditions for countries to restrict freedom of expression, the most prominent of which is not broadcasting hate speech or harming rights. Others.