CAIRO (Middle East Eye) – Egyptian dissidents living in Germany are being threatened and spied on by their country’s feared spy service, and they say their situation has become more dangerous since Berlin signed a security pact with Cairo in 2017.
Dissidents in Germany also told Middle East Eye they risk arrest if they return home, and fear retaliation against their families in Egypt as part of a campaign by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government to stifle dissent abroad.
In one case, an Egyptian man based in Berlin told MEE he believed he had been arrested and jailed in Egypt for attending an anti-Sisi protest during a visit to the German capital by the Egyptian president in 2015.
Mohamed, who, like others who spoke to MEE, did not want to be identified by his real name because of security concerns, said he had been photographed at the demonstration by people who he believes were working for Egypt’s intelligence service.
Mohamed said he did not consider himself to be a political activist at the time of the demonstration. But he decided to attend because he objected to Germany hosting Sisi despite his government’s disregard for human rights and its persecution of political opponents since the military coup that brought Sisi to power in 2013.
Sisi’s visit to Berlin in 2015 came on the back of a series of multibillion-euro deals benefiting German companies, including an $8bn contract to develop Egypt’s energy infrastructure signed by German energy giant Siemens at an economic conference in Sharm el-Sheikh earlier in 2015.
Egypt has also become one of the biggest buyers of German weapons and military equipment, spending an estimated $900m in 2019 and $850m in 2020.
In 2017, Egypt signed a controversial security partnership agreement with Germany. The deal facilitated intelligence sharing and data sharing between German police and security agencies and the Egyptian interior ministry, and cooperation in areas including counter-terrorism, people trafficking and organized crime.
According to several accounts heard by MEE, staff numbers at the Egyptian embassy in Berlin nearly doubled after the deal was signed.
Many exiles and dissidents had spoken out or campaigned publicly against the security cooperation deal, Mohamed said, and their activities had not gone unnoticed.