CAIRO: Prime Minster Ibrahim Mahlab headed to South Africa Friday to attend the 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union summit scheduled for 14-15 June, Youm7 reported.
This year’s summit, which kicked off 7 June, is being held under the scheme “Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063.”
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who was scheduled to attend the summit, has delegated Mahlab after the South African Muslim Lawyers Association (MLA) filed an official request for his arrest upon arrival over “war crime charges,” Turkish news agency Anadolu reported Wednesday.
“We believe al-Sisi committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for the horrendous killings that resulted from the [2013] coup in Egypt,” Lawyer Yousha Tayoub told Anadolu on Wednesday.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry denied the allegations saying, “This case does not represent any importance or interest to the Egyptian government nor the president. These are unfounded allegations aim to stir public opinion.”
The charges are mainly relevant to the deadly dispersal of pro- Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins at Rabaa al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda squares following the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
However, El Watan private web portal reported late Friday that Sisi spoke with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma over the phone and informed him that he delegated Mahlab to attend the event.