FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 8, 2014

Contact: Alli McCracken, (860) 575-5692, alli@codepink.org

Marking One Year Anniversary of Egyptian Coup, Activists Protest Outside of US Senate on July 9, Call for End to US Support for Sisi Government

>What: Protest against US support for military coup in Egypt

>Where: In front of Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC

>When: Wednesday, July 9, 12:00pm-1:30pm

Washington, DC–– CODEPINK is teaming up with Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights for a protest at Congress to mark the one year anniversary of the bloody military coup in Egypt led by now-President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and call for a cut off in US funds to the military.

Amnesty International’s statement marking the one-year anniversary reported a surge in arbitrary arrests, and harrowing incidents of torture and deaths in police custody. Amnesty stated that “torture is routinely carried out by the military and police, with members of the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters particularly targeted.”

Human Rights Watch has issued chilling reports on the methods of torture employed, including electric shocks, rape, beatings and suspending handcuffed detainees from open doors, and likened the environment now to the darkest days of Mubarak's regime.

"With such a grotesque level of repression, it is shameful that Secretary of State John Kerry met with Sisi and said that $575 million in US funds would be released," said Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK. "According to the Leahy amendment, no US funds should go to governments that came to power through military coups. We are simply demanding that Congress live up to its own laws and cut all ties with the Sisi government." After the rally, human rights activists will meet with key members of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Human Rights Subcommittee, as well as key aides in Senator Leahy's office (since Leahy is the author of the anti-coup amendment).

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