Egypt's al-Sisi on state visit to Germany

Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi travels to Berlin on Wednesday, where German leaders are ready to roll out the red carpet for the ex-general despite what monitors describe as his government's abysmal human rights record. The trip, a first state visit long desired by the former army chief, will see him meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, who as an activist played a prominent role in ending repressive Communist rule in East Germany. Sisi will also meet corporate leaders at a business conference on Thursday.

Sisi's office said he seeks to boost economic, military and security cooperation, and highlighted €4.4 billion in bilateral trade last year. Germany's Siemens AG has made the largest single commitment so far to Egypt under Sisi's yearlong rule – a €10 billion agreement to build power plants.

Human rights groups on Tuesday urged Merkel to link closer ties to Egypt addressing pervasive violations. "Germany should continue to freeze transfers of arms and security-related items that can be used for repression until Egypt investigates and brings to justice the security forces responsible for unlawful killings of hundreds of protesters," read a joint letter by five groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

But with much of the Middle East plunged into violent chaos in the years since the Arab Spring uprisings, Western nations have once again come to see many of the region's autocrats as partners for stability.

"Merkel probably doesn't have a lot of sympathy for Sisi, but she is enough into realpolitik to just go along and not stir up things too much," said Kristian Brakel, a Middle East expert at Germany's Council for Foreign Relations. "We have seen her deal with a lot of political leaders for whom she actually harbors no sympathies at all, so I don't see how it would be different with Sisi."

Berlin police say some two dozen protests have been registered, but with fewer than 100 people at each, numbers far below the thousands of pro-Sisi demonstrators registered by Coptic Christian and other groups.

A plane carrying over 140 Sisi supporters, including celebrities, departed early on Tuesday for Berlin ahead of his visit. But human rights activist Mohammed Lotfy, who was due to speak before Germany's parliament, said he was banned from travelling at the airport and had his passport confiscated. "What is more concerning is that the regime is scared of even one person going out to speak critically. That is a sign of how frail the state is," Lotfy said.    (AP)

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