- EGYPT
- October 20, 2017
- 5 minutes read
Aref: Sisi Trying to Rule Egypt by Harsh Prison Rules

Ahmed Aref, jailed Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman, said the coup junta regime in Egypt has been striving to transform Egypt into a large dark dungeon governed by harsh Aqrab Prison rules; but is now waking up to scenes from a real nightmare.
Like all despots, Sisi has adopted a policy of drying resources and controlling supplies in order to tighten his grip and control of the people. This is the evil policy of exhaustion and distraction.
In an article published in the Huffington Post Arabic, Aref said the regime, which is pursuing the method of Nasserite oppression to take control, has spent much of its time endeavoring to impose the harsh Aqrab Prison model over all of Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood spokesman added that Sisi is striving to follow former president Nasser who said: "I want to be able to press one button to turn the country on; and press one button to turn the country off" pointing that that illusion will not be achieved, since time has changed a lot of variables, especially after the January 25 (2011).
Aref stressed that the best picture of Sisi’s strategy can be vividly seen in Aqrab Prison, where his henchmen control the size and quality of the meal that reaches the detainees – barely enough to sustain. They also use surveillance, monitoring and security tracking to strip away freedoms, not to mention torture in police stations and places of detention and in State Security HQs.
Moreover, Sisi’s henchmen use mass arrest campaigns and forced disappearances. These are the first steps that precede a stage where junta authorities count each breath detainees take, through the latest surveillance cameras that work 24/7 recording (audio and video) every move made by all residents of Aqrab Prison. They also let sewage build up under prison cells – inviting all kinds of rodents and insects.
Likewise, the Egyptian people suffer all the above: the calamities, disasters, failings and losses continue unabated everywhere. And we get news of more crises and disasters every day. This is part of the compassion and tenderness the Sisi promised the people on July 3, 2012.
Aref said Sisi is now waking up to scenes from a real nightmare… hearing the words of Aqrab prisoners shouting in his face, day and night: "traitor", "murderer", "failure"… seeing the faces of the detainees’ children laughing sarcastically at his failure and inability to force their parents to bend the knee or even to tame them politically.
Aref detailed some Aqrab Prison tragedies, like visit bans and the harsh break-up of families, and stressed that Sisi echoed his mentor’s saying: "You will only see what I see. I lead you only to the path of prosperity," but then establishes a myth doomed to failure… abject failure… in Aqrab Prison as well as in every apparatus and institution in Egypt.
Aref said the Sisi myth will end so suddenly it will surprise and shock everyone, although sudden fall scenarios are being ruled out, just as they were in the case of the Shah in Iran (Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his family) despite clear signs of corruption and failure that led to his fall in an unexpected popular revolution.