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Celebrity cheerleaders and young student tarnish Sisi visit

Celebrity cheerleaders and young student tarnish Sisi visit
MENA
3 min read
05 June, 2015
Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi backed by a troop of movie starlets has his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel abruptly halted by a young activist.
Yusra left and Elham Shahin centre two of Sisi's celebrity entourage [AMRO MARAGHI/AFP/Getty Images]

Egyptian President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday in Berlin was shut down after it descended into chaos, when a young activist disrupted the joint press conference.

Egyptian medical student Fagr al-Adli brought the meeting to an abrupt halt by screaming “mass-murderer”, “Nazi” and “fascist” at Sisi and “down with military rule”, while holding up the four-fingered Rabaa salute used by Sisi opponents to commemorate the murder of at least 800 Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

     
      Adli was escorted out the press conference by security [Anadolu]

Adli was quickly bundled out of the meeting as someEgyptian journalists and members of Sisi’s delegation of B-list celebrities responded to the protest with chants of “long live Egypt.”

Sisi has brought along a troop of famous Egyptian divas along for his four-day trip to Germany and Hungary, including the actresses and glamor-icons Yusra and Libliba.

Adli told Anadolu Agency, “We have been being governed by dictatorship for 60 years in Egypt. I made this protest because we want justice, we want freedom.”

The 22-year-old condemned Merkel for meeting the Egyptian president, because Sisi has "denied the rule of law and destroyed democracy in Egypt".

A lawyer in Egypt has filed a lawsuit for Adli’s nationality to be revoked for “compromising Egyptian national interest”.

Sisi's visit to Berlin has been hugely divisive. The president was met during his first visit to Germany with military honours and supporters. Around 500 angry pro-Brotherhood protesters took to the streets, holding up pictures of former president Mohamed Morsi.

     
      Anti-Sisi protesters rally aginst the meeting [Al-Araby al-Jadeed]

Sisi’s supporters also took to the streets chanting “Sisi is my president” and singing and dancing for the cameras.

In the joint press conference Merkel voiced criticism of Egypt's use of the death penalty and poor religious freedom record. "Under no circumstances, even with regard to terrorist activities, must people be sentenced to death," the German president stated.

The visit drew the attention of Sisi's opponents on Twitter.

Al-Jazeera reporter Ayman Azzam said:


Translation: They want to revoke Fagr al-Adli’s Egyptian nationality! They’ll revoke the nationalities of all honourable citizens till it’s only left for belly-dancers.

Mohammad Moshsin tweeted:


Translation: Fagr al-Adli is manlier than a lot of men. She took a firm stand against the oppressor and told the murderer you’re a murderer, a Nazi and a killer. A woman worth more than a million men.

Civil engineer Mohammad said in reference to the pro-Sisi delegation in Germany:


Translation: No one will remember all the commotion and belly-dancing of these crazy people but the free and steadfast Fagr al-Adli will be the talk of the world, that’s the difference between us and them.

Mada Masr's Andeel drew a web-comic to mark the occasion:

     
     


Sisi: Next time we'll talk about this whole democracy thing for sure, caiooooooooooo!

Merkel: Hold on…