Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi

Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian military in 2014, Sisi served as Egypt’s deputy prime minister from 2013 to 2014, as its minister of defense from 2012 to 2013, and as its director of military intelligence from 2010 to 2012. He was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal in January 2014.

Sisi was born in Cairo in 1954. As a young man, he joined the Egyptian Army and held a post in Saudi Arabia before enrolling in the Egyptian Army's Command and Staff College. Sisi received additional training at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in the United Kingdom in 1992, and at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 2006. Before becoming director of military intelligence in 2010, he served as a mechanized infantry commander.

After the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and election of Mohamed Morsi-era Hussein Tantawi. As the minister of defense, and ultimately commander in chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, Sisi was involved in the military coup that removed then-president Morsi from office on 3 July 2013, in response to the June 2013 Egyptian protests. Morsi was replaced by an interim president, Adly Mansour, who appointed a new cabinet. Demonstrations, sit-ins, and violent clashes between supporters of Morsi and security forces followed, culminating in the Rabaa massacre.

On 26 March 2014, in response to calls from supporters to run for the presidency, Field Marshal el-Sisi retired from his military career and announced that he would run as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election. The election, held between 26 and 28 May, featured one opponent, Hamdeen Sabahi, saw 47% participation by eligible voters, and resulted in Sisi winning in a landslide victory with 97% of the vote. Sisi was sworn into office as President of Egypt on 8 June 2014.

Sisi rules an authoritarian regime in Egypt, and some elements of his rule have been described as even more strict than that of prior authoritarian leader Mubarak. In the 2018 presidential election, Sisi faced only nominal opposition (a pro-government supporter, Moussa Mostafa Moussa) after the military arrest of Sami Anan, threats made to Ahmed Shafik with old corruption charges and an alleged sex tape, and the withdrawal of Khaled Ali and Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat due to the overwhelming obstacles presented, and violations committed, by the elections committee.

Early life and military education

Sisi was born in Old Cairo on 19 November 1954 to Said Hussein Khalili al-Sisi and Soad Mohamed, both from Monufia Governorate. He grew up in Gamaleya, near al-Azhar Mosque, in a quarter where Muslims, Jews and Christians resided and in which he later recalled how, during his childhood, he had heard church bells and watched Jews flock to synagogue unhindered.

He later enrolled in the Egyptian Military Academy, and upon graduating he held various command positions in the Egyptian Armed Forces and served as Egypt's military attaché in Riyadh. In 1987, he attended the Egyptian Command and Staff College. In 1992, he continued his military career by enrolling in the British Command and Staff College, and, in 2006, enrolled in the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Fast Facts
CNN, 1 July 2014. Sisi was the youngest member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, serving as the director of military intelligence and reconnaissance department. He was later chosen to replace Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and serve as the commander-in-chief and Minister of Defense and Military Production on 12 August 2012.

Sisi's family origins were in the Monufia Governorate. He is the second eldest of eight siblings. His father, a conservative but not radical Muslim, who later had six additional children with a second wife, owned an antiques shop for tourists in the historic bazaar of Khan el-Khalili.

Sisi and his siblings studied at the nearby library at al-Azhar University. Unlike his brothers – one of whom is a senior judge, another a civil servant – el-Sisi went to a local army-run secondary school, where he developed a relationship with his maternal cousin, Entissar Amer. They were married upon Sisi's graduation from the Egyptian Military Academy in 1977. He attended the following courses:
*General Command and Staff Course, Egyptian Command and Staff College, 1987;
*General Command and Staff Course, Joint Command and Staff College, United Kingdom, 1992;
*War Course, Fellowship of the Higher War College, Nasser Military Academy, Egypt, 2003;
*War Course, United States Army War College, United States, 2006;
*Egyptian Armed Forces military attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;
*Basic Infantry Course, United States

Military career, 1977–2014

El-Sisi received his commission as a military officer in 1977 serving in the mechanised infantry, specialising in anti-tank warfare and mortar warfare. He became Commander of the Northern Military Region-Alexandria in 2008 and then Director of Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance. El-Sisi was the youngest member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt. While a member of the Supreme Council, he made controversial statements regarding allegations that Egyptian soldiers had subjected detained female demonstrators to forced virginity tests. He is reported to have told Egypt's state-owned newspaper that "the virginity-test procedure was done to protect the girls from rape as well as to protect the soldiers and officers from rape accusations." He was the first member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to admit that the invasive tests had been carried out.

Main command positions

*Commander, 509th Mechanized Infantry Battalion
*Chief of Staff, 134th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
*Commander, 16th Mechanized Infantry Brigade
*Chief of Staff, 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division
*Chief of Staff, Northern Military Zone
*Deputy Director, Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department
*Director, Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department

Also reported is commander of the 23rd Mechanized Division, Third Field Army.

Minister of Defense

On 12 August 2012, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, with then little-known el-Sisi. He also promoted him to the rank of colonel general. Sisi was then described by the official website of FJP as a "Defense minister with revolutionary taste". El-Sisi also took the post of Minister of Defense and Military Production in the Qandil Cabinet.

El-Sisi was appointed as Minister of Defense on 12 August 2012. He remained in office under the new government formed after the deposition of Morsi, and led by Hazem al-Beblawi. He was also appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt. On 27 January 2014, he was promoted to the rank of field marshal.

Civil uprising, coup d'état and transition

Mass demonstrations occurred on 30 June 2013 as Egyptians took to the streets to denounce Mohamed Morsi. Clashes took place around Egypt. Soon afterwards, the Egyptian Army issued a 48-hour ultimatum which aired on television that gave the country's political parties until 3 July to meet the demands of the anti-Morsi demonstrators. The Egyptian military also threatened to intervene if the dispute was not resolved by then.
On 3 July 2013, the Egyptian Armed Forces declared that as the political parties had failed to meet the deadline and Morsi had failed to build a national consensus for his leadership, the army had to overthrow Morsi in a coup d'état. The army then installed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court Adly Mansour as the interim head of state in his place until a new president could be elected, and ordered the arrest of many members of the Muslim Brotherhood on charges of "inciting violence and disturbing general security and peace." El-Sisi announced on television that the president had "failed to meet the demands of the Egyptian people" and declared that the constitution would be temporarily suspended, which was met by acceptance from anti-Morsi demonstrations and condemnation from pro-Morsi supporters in Rabaa al-Adawiya.

On 24 July 2013, during a speech at a military parade, el-Sisi called for mass demonstrations to grant the Egyptian military and police a "mandate" to crack down on terrorism. While supporters interpreted this to mean that el-Sisi felt the need of the people to prove to the world that it was not a coup but the popular will, the statement was seen by opponents as contradicting the military's pledges to hand over power to civilians after removing Morsi and as indicating an imminent crackdown against Islamists.

The reactions to el-Sisi's announcement ranged from open support from the Egyptian presidency and the Tamarod movement to rejection, not only by the Muslim Brotherhood, but also by the Salafi Nour Party, the Islamist Strong Egypt Party, the liberal April 6 Youth Movement and some western-backed human rights groups.
During the August 2013 Cairo sit-ins dispersal, the Egyptian military under el-Sisi's command was involved in assisting the national police in dispersing two sit-ins held by Muslim Brotherhood/Morsi supporters from sit-ins in Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda squares. This action resulted in rapidly escalating violence that eventually led to deaths of 638 people, of whom 595 were protestors and 43 were security forces, with at least 3,994 injured from both sides (according to the Ministry of Health). In addition to several violent incidents in various cities including Menya and Kerdasa against security forces which resulted in the Kerdasa massacre. Writing for British newspaper ''The Independent'' in August 2013, Robert Fisk described then-General el-Sisi as being at a loss, but that a massacre - as Fisk called the sit-in dispersal - would go down in history as an infamy. Writing for the American magazine ''Time'', Lee Smith concluded that "Egypt's new leader is unfit to rule", referring not to the actual head of government at the time, interim president Adly Mansour, but to Sisi. In a file published by the State Information Services, the government explained the raids by stating that "police went on to use force dispersing the sit-in on 14 August 2013 with the least possible damage, causing hundreds of civilians and police to fall as victims, while Muslim Brotherhood supporters imposed a blockade for 46 days against the people in al-Nahda and Rabaa al-Adawiya squares under the name of sit-in where tens of protesters took to the street daily hindered the lives of the Egyptians, causing unrest and the death or injury of many victims as well as damage to public and private properties".

On 3 August 2013, el-Sisi gave his first interview since the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi. Speaking to ''The Washington Post'', he criticised the US response and accused the Obama administration of disregarding the Egyptian popular will and of providing insufficient support amid threats of a civil war, saying, "You left the Egyptians. You turned your back on the Egyptians and they won't forget that."

On 6 October war anniversary in 2013, el-Sisi announced that the army was committed to the popular mandate of 26 July 2013: "We are committed, in front of God, to the Egyptian and Arab people that we will protect Egypt, the Egyptians and their free will."During the anniversary celebration that year, General el-Sisi invited the Emirati, Iraqi, Bahraini, Moroccan and Jordanian defense ministers to celebrate with him. During his speech he said in a warning way that the Egyptian people "will never forget who stood with them or against them". El-Sisi described 6 October as "a day to celebrate for all Arabs", hoping for the "unification of Arabs". He also thanked "Egypt's Arab brothers, who stood by its side." El-Sisi commented on the relationship between the Egyptian army and Egyptian people, saying that it is hard to break. El-Sisi said: "We would die before you he Egyptian peoplewould feel pain". He also compared the Egyptian army to the Pyramid, saying that "it cannot be broken".

Civil liberties

After Sisi had ousted president Morsi and disbanded the Shura Council, in September 2013 interim president Adly Mansour temporarily decreed that ministers could award contracts without a request for tender. In the next month, the government awarded building contracts worth approximately one billion dollars to the Egyptian Army. In April 2014, the interim government's Investment Law banned appeals against government contracts.

Also in September 2013, the interim government removed pre-trial detention limits for certain crimes, allowing unconvicted political dissidents to remain in detention indefinitely. In November 2013, el-Sisi's government banned protests in an attempt to combat the growing pro-Brotherhood unrest; the police arrested thousands of Egyptians using the new law.

On 24 March 2014, an Egyptian court sentenced 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, following an attack on a police station in 2013, an act described by Amnesty International as "the largest single batch of simultaneous death sentences we've seen in recent years ��anywhere in the world". The BBC
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