German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted on meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Berlin, despite the fact that speaker of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert said he would not meet with him because of human rights' violations in Egypt.
The chancellor’s invitation to Sisi is on, said a spokesperson for the Federal Press Office in Berlin.
Sisi will be in Berlin on June 3 and 4.
In a letter he sent to the Egyptian ambassador in Berlin, The Federal Press Office quoted Lammert as saying that “instead of setting a date for parliamentary elections, which is long overdue, we have been seeing for months organized persecution of opposition groups, mass arrests, sentences up to life imprisonment and an incredible number of death sentences.”
He added that “this will not contribute to internal peace and democratic development” and found therefore no basis for talks with the Egyptian president.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
