Human Rights Group Accuses France Of Supporting Egypt's Repressive Measures

France indirectly supports the repressive measures of the Egyptian authorities by delivering military equipment and ammunition to the Arab republic, a report released by a prominent human rights group said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2018) France indirectly supports the repressive measures of the Egyptian authorities by delivering military equipment and ammunition to the Arab republic, a report released by a prominent human rights group said on Tuesday.

"An Amnesty International investigation published today reveals that armoured personnel carriers supplied by France were used with deadly effect by the Egyptian security forces to violently and repeatedly disperse protests and crush dissent," the Amnesty International said.

According to the human rights watch, France delivered arms and military equipment worth over 4 billion Euros ($4.6 billion) to the Egyptian military in 2012-2017.

The photographs and video material collected by the Amnesty International suggest that the French armored vehicles were used by the Egyptian authorities to disperse participants of protest actions in the Egyptian cities of Cairo and Alexandria in August 2013.

"On 14 August 2013 French-supplied Sherpa armoured vehicles were used in Cairo by Egyptian security forces to disperse sit-ins across the city. In what is now known as the Rabaa and Nahda massacres, the Egyptian security forces killed up to 1,000 people, the largest number of protesters killed in a single day in modern Egyptian history," the report said.

The French authorities, in turn, said, commenting on the report, that the arms deliveries to Egypt were carried out with the aim of combating terrorism and not for ensuring the public order.

"European Union regulations legally require France, and all other EU states, to deny an export licence if there is a clear risk that the military technology or equipment being exported might be used for internal repression," the rights group stressed.

The Amnesty International stressed that France as a party to the Arms Trade Treaty was obliged to immediately ban arms exports in case there was a possibility that they might be used in violation of human rights.

In July 2013, amid the wave of public discontent over the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization (banned in Russia), the Egyptian army ousted President Mohammed Morsi and declared a transition period in the country. Morsi's supporters staged mass protests, demanding his reinstatement. Hundreds Egyptians were killed in subsequent riots and clashes, including August 2013 Rabaa massacre, when, according to various estimations, up to 1,000 people were killed in a brutal dispersal of a pro-Morsi sit-in in Cairo.