Writer Corrado Augias -
ZELIGIO / PAONICONTRASTO
The Italian writer Corrado Augias announced this Sunday that he would restore the Legion of Honor which had been awarded to him in 2007. By this gesture, he wishes to protest against the decoration of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian president.
Emmanuel Macron presented the Head of State on an official visit to Paris last Monday with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, the highest French distinction.
A decision that provoked the ire of humanitarian NGOs.
The latter accuse the Egyptian regime of repressing human rights.
In Memory Of Giulio Regeni
In a letter published in the left-wing Italian daily
La Repubblica
, Corrado Augias describes his act as “purely symbolic”, even “sentimental”.
The journalist and former MEP said he would go to the French embassy on Monday to return his medal.
According to the author of the
Secret History of the Vatican
, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi would have "objectively become an accomplice of atrocious criminals".
The intellectual refers in particular to the murder of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Italian student found dead in the suburbs of Cairo in January 2016.
A welcome gesture
The latter had been kidnapped, tortured and mutilated.
This case is a source of tension between Egypt and Italy, the latter accusing in particular Cairo of not wanting to cooperate with investigators.
Rome had even recalled its ambassador and is now preparing to judge four Egyptian officers, including a general.
Many public figures today salute the writer's initiative.
"I hope that from tomorrow, a long line will form outside the French Embassy to imitate the noble gesture of Corrado Augias", thus indicated in a tweet quoted by
Liberation
the holder. Italian word from Amnesty International.
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Uproar after Macron's presentation of the highest French distinction to Sissi with complete discretion
Egypt
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Legion of Honor
General Sissi
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