Since its coup against the late President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the Egyptian regime has managed to thwart any path to exit in opposition demonstrations, and is still fighting these calls, relying on 9 systematic means.
After President Morsi was ousted and imprisoned, his supporters were keen to organize weekly mass demonstrations, before they were "surrounded" by security and judicial confrontations. Not all subsequent calls succeeded in gathering sufficient momentum and pushing millions of protesters onto the streets.
On September 20, a new protest erupted in some cities and villages, but the regime was able again to mobilize security forces, and its supporters were able to mobilize large numbers last Friday night to celebrate the early victory of the October 1973 war against Israel.
According to this report, which is based on observers' estimates, 9 methods that the Egyptian regime relied on to quell protests can be summarized:
1- The Demonstration Law
was approved in November 2013, under the pretext of achieving stability and preventing chaos in the country, and through it the system justifies prosecutions for anyone calling or participating in demonstrations against it.
2- Arrest is the
most prominent means that is based on the protest law, which is reflected in the emergence of calls on communication platforms from opponents from inside Egypt to reject the recent call for protest, lest it be a reason for the increase in detainees.
On 27 September, the Egyptian prosecution announced the release of 68 children of those accused in a case related to "riots", while investigating others, whose number was not mentioned, but non-governmental human rights organizations outside Egypt reported hundreds of arrests.
There is no official census of the number of people arrested due to the demonstrations, but unofficial estimates consider them in the thousands in "fabricated" cases, in exchange for an official insistence on refusing to describe the detainees as "political", but rather describing them as "criminal offenders accused in cases of terrorism and breaking the law and are tried before an honest and independent judiciary." ".
Despite the repression, the demonstrators have defied the regime in dozens of cities and villages recently (Al-Jazeera)
3- Extension of pretrial detention
This procedure constitutes a "shock" to the opposition and human rights defenders, as it may sometimes exceed the maximum period of two years, with the possibility of referring the accused immediately upon his release to another case.
For example, Mahmoud Hussein, a fellow journalist in the Al-Jazeera network, has been in pretrial detention since 2016.
4- Security
proliferation The heavy security deployment still surrounds every call to move the street, and it is one of the most prominent means of suppressing the recent calls to demonstrate, when many police officers deployed in the various governorates of Egypt.
5- Crowds and
Celebrations Last Friday, the October 1973 victory celebrations were held a few days early, and in conjunction with calls to go out in protests, the former took care of the regime in major fields, secured a wide range of security, and a large presence of supporters of the regime, with remarkable media coverage.
The system is currently focusing mostly on activities that are mostly related to national occasions for the crowd, in contrast to the years of the crowd and the corresponding crowd that followed the summer of 2013.
The regime relies on gathering its supporters in the streets (Reuters)
6- Ignoring and attacking The
regime’s media ignores the calls to protest against it, and resorts to escalating the attack if it senses a change in the rules of the scene, and opposition media outlets may wait to highlight any attack or reduce their calls in the official or pro-government media, in an attempt to gain legitimacy for recognition of the movement’s existence Antagonist.
7- Battles of “hashtags” The
regime’s supporters are fighting battles on communication platforms via “hashtags” to impose its point of view in cyberspace.
Before September 20, a feverish competition appeared between the hashtags for and against the regime, and each team sought to reach the highest interaction tag on Twitter.
8- Internal and external support
The Egyptian regime relies - according to observers - on "internal and external" support to keep it in power;
At home, the Al-Azhar Sheikhdom recently rushed to attack what it considered "destructive" calls for demonstrations. Outside, the regime still relies on the support of the United States, Russia, China and Israel.
9 - The voice of the opposition has
dwindled
internally.
The calls of the Muslim Brotherhood to demonstrate have declined for years, and many opposition movements and parties have lost their popularity due to the prosecutions, arrests and exile.
Observers believe that the opposition outside faces great obstacles, including the absence of a comprehensive project for unity, the lack of a popular incubator effective at home, as well as the repercussions of the prosecution restrictions.