Amnesty accuses Egypt of ‘intimidation’ to silence activists

BEIRUT: Amnesty International on Thursday accused Egyptian security agencies of "persistent intimidation and harassment" of human rights defenders as a political tactic to silence them.

The London-based group interviewed more than 25 people summoned by the feared National Security Agency for its report called "This will only end when you die".

"Activists and human rights defenders said at every summons NSA officers regularly threatened them with arrest and prosecution unless they attended interrogations, and raided the homes of those who failed to appear," Amnesty said. Most of the 21 men and seven women interviewed described "living in constant fear of being detained by the NSA," said the group.