Egyptian Regime Is Trying to Silence Pro-Democracy Voices

A wounded man being carried to a field hospital in Nasr City, Egypt on July 27, 2013. Over 100 people were killed in one day by the military., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Egyptian liberal: Regime is trying to silence pro-democracy voices

Ahram Online, Monday 5 Aug 2013

Liberal politician Amr Hamzawy accuses a 'wing' within the Egyptian regime of circulating rumours that he is close to the Muslim Brotherhood

Egyptian politician Amr Hamzawy, who heads the liberal Egypt Freedom Party,said in a series of posts on Twitter on Monday that a "wing within the regime" is working towards silencing all voices calling for democracy.

He also said a "campaign" by this wing is attempting to "morally assassinate" him using rumours and lies" to portray him as a "foreign agent and traitor".

He came out strongly via his Twitter account against what he calls a "deliberate smear campaign" carried out against him by part of the current regime which "wants to go back to the time before the 25 January revolution," a reference to ousted president Hosni Mubarak's era.

Hamzawy has been attacked by several newspaper columnists – one from Al-Watan newspaper where Hamzawy was himself formerly a columnist– accusing him of being an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, recently ousted from power.

The liberal politician has repeatedly advocated against persecuting the group, which took power in Egypt when its candidate Mohamed Morsi won last year’s presidential elections, only to be removed from by the military after millions took to the street.

Hamzawy's position brought a wave of accusations that he was politically aligned with the Brotherhood – an accusation he repeatedly rejected. Hamzawy said he had called for early presidential elections prior to Morsi’s ouster and had repeatedly criticised the Brotherhood when the group was in power.

On Monday he wrote on Twitter that he rejects "the fascism of exclusion [from politics]” and “overstepping the law," adding that he would defend freedom however high the cost.

He claimed that rumours were circulating that he met with the US ambassador in Cairo and a prominent Brotherhood figure. He denied the claims and asserted that all his meetings are public. "I'm not of those who meet the American ambassador or anyone else in secret," he wrote on Twitter.

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