SIS chairman addresses “false information” on human rights

CAIRO – 31 October 2017: “No single complaint has been filed on torture in prisons unlike what is being propagated on the international scale,” Diaa Rashwan, chairperson of the State Information Service (SIS) said Monday.

Rashwan, during a TV interview with Al-Nahar satellite channel, described the aforementioned claims as “false information deliberately propagated to harm the country, the same way the number of those in custody has been exaggerated globally as well.”

Rashwan also criticized several issues and claims that falsely tarnish Egypt’s image globally.

The SIS chairperson said he has been coordinating with human rights experts on writing a report tackling claims raised earlier by Human Rights Watch (HRW); The New York-based organization issued a report on September 5 alleging that the use of torture by security forces in Egypt is widespread.

Rashwan added that accusations in the HRW report are mere impressions without empirical evidence, describing the organization's reports as professionally flawed.

He previously claimed in a press conference that the report is based on interviews with families of terrorists who left to join the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups, in addition to NGOs secretly affiliated with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.