CAIRO (AP/ Middle East Eye) – Germany’s top diplomat on Saturday said that human rights criteria will be at the center of her new government’s international arms sales, including to Egypt, a major importer of German weapons.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a bill being introduced this year will also impose restrictions in order to ensure that weapons will not be sold to crisis-hit areas except in exceptional circumstances, and with a justification.
“The human rights situation already plays an important role here,” she said, adding that “this will also have an impact on countries that have so far been major recipients of German arms exports.” She did not elaborate on the mechanisms that will determine this.
Baerbock spoke at a news conference in Cairo along with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry, after also meeting President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. She said she discussed the situation of human rights and civil society during her talks, but did not provide further details.
Foreign Minister Shukry said Egypt’s defense is vital to Europe, especially in preventing migration to Europe via the Mediterranean. Since 2016, the Egyptian navy has acted to prevent the launching of such migrant boats to Europe, an action he said was “important to our European partners.”
Egypt will simply seek other sources of armament if Germany decides to restrict arms sales to it, he added.
Germany exported a record 9.35 billion euros ($10.65 billion) of weapons last year, of which some 4.3 billion euros in sales went to Egypt, mostly for maritime and air defense weapons. Most of that was authorized by the previous German government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Egyptian government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people and activists who were involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled the country’s longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Prisoner Dies After Medical Denial

Egyptian businessperson Ahmed Shaheen has died in custody due to medical negligence, a rights group told Middle East Eye on Saturday.
The Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) said that Shaheen passed away on Wednesday in the notorious Tora prison after nearly five years in detention.
Shaheen, 42, was the managing director of Azmeel Real Estate Company. He leaves behind a wife, a son, and two daughters, the organization said.
Cairo Airport security forces arrested Shaheen on 28 April 2017 on his way back from a business trip to Saudi Arabia, Ahmet Attar, a researcher at ENHR, told MEE.
Shaheen then disappeared for one month, during which time he was physically and psychologically tortured to extract confessions of financing a terrorist group.
He then appeared at the Supreme State Security Prosecution for investigations and had since been held in pre-trial detention in Tora prison in Cairo.
Attar said that Shaheen has been subjected to many violations since his arrest, including enforced disappearance, torture, and deprivation of health care and family visits.
He was also among hundreds placed on terrorism lists arbitrarily, Attar added.
He was only transferred to the Tora prison hospital four days before his death. He was buried in his hometown of Menoufia.
The ENHR said the circumstances in which Shaheen was held “amount to premeditated murder”.
Shahin is the second detainee to die in February in Egypt. Days prior to his death, 40-year-old Mohammed Abdel Hamid Ahmed Abdel Hafez also passed away after his health deteriorated due to denial of medical care, according to the Arab Organization for Human Rights.
With Shaheen’s death, the number of deaths in custody since July 2013 has reached 918, AOHR said.