Protests punctuate Sisi’s first day in London

Protesters for and against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gathered on London's Downing Street Thursday morning after he arrived in the UK to meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Sisi is on a three-day visit to discuss bilateral cooperation on security and to encourage British investment in Egypt.

A pro-Sisi demonstration was organized by Hany Mansour, a member of Sisi’s delegation on the trip, the London-based newspaper the Guardian said. Protesters welcoming the Egyptian president reportedly outnumbered those who were demonstrating against his visit.

But as the president arrived, anti-Sisi protesters lay on the ground, wearing white boiler suits smeared with fake blood and blocking access to the prime minister’s residence until they were removed by police.

On Thursday afternoon, the #stopSisi campaign reported that a number of people had been arrested by police outside Downing Street.

Protesters threw eggs at TV presenter Ahmed Moussa, who is also part of Sisi’s delegation, according to demonstrators on Twitter.

Opposition to Sisi’s UK trip has been building since June, when his visit was first announced the day after a Cairo court upheld former President Mohamed Morsi’s death sentence.

A broad spectrum of groups in the UK with varying political interests has vehemently protested against Sisi’s visit to the UK, including the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, April 6 Youth Movement, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, the Egypt Solidarity Initiative and representatives from the National Union of Students.

Protesters accuse Sisi of jailing tens of thousands of political opponents, mandating enforced disappearances of dissidents and using the war on terrorism to repress the opposition. They also accuse Cameron of not pushing human rights abuses with Sisi, and call for halting arms sales to Egypt.

Sisi defended his government’s security measures in interviews with the BBC and the Telegraph ahead of his visit.

“The laws aren’t oppressive or stringent, or anything like that,” he told BBC reporter Lyse Doucet. “Don’t forget that we are plagued by terrorism along our 1,000-km-long border with Libya, Sinai and around Egypt. We need stability, so the rest of Egyptian society can survive.”

As Sisi was in the air traveling to London, Cameron made a decision to halt flights to and from the Sharm el-Sheikh airport amid speculation a Russian plane was downed by a bomb last week in Sinai.

Talks between Cameron and Sisi are assumed to be focused on Egypt’s airport security, as speculation continues to swirl around the downed Russian jet.