Security crackdown in Egypt thwarts protests
CAIRO — Egyptian authorities lifted some tight security measures in the capital of Cairo on Saturday, a day after they sealed off the main square and downtown thoroughfares to thwart a possible protest against the country’s president.
The measures were part of a harsh security clampdown following rare demonstrations in several cities last weekend, all of which were broken up by police.
Calls for fresh protests on Friday were largely stifled by the deployment of thousands of police in Cairo’s streets, but there was a small protest of at least three dozen people on el-Waraq island at the northern fringes of the capital, which was quickly dispersed, according to three witnesses who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Security personnel were visible in Cairo’s main streets and squares on Saturday but did not prevent normal traffic as in the past days. Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the pro-democracy uprising in 2011 that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, was reopened, as were subway stations in the area that had been closed the day before.
Last week’s small but rare protests against el-Sissi marked a startling eruption of popular dissent, which has been almost completely silenced in the past years by draconian measures imposed under the general-turned-president.
More than 2,000 people were arrested in the days after, according to rights lawyers.
Over the past week, state-run media opened a campaign attacking the protests, depicting them as part of alleged plots against Egypt’s stability.
Samy Magdy is an Associated Press writer.