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Evan Bartlett
Oct 27, 2015
Two senior figures in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour shadow cabinet have added their names to a letter calling on the government to withdraw its invitation to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the shadow secretary of state for international development, are among 55 signatories to an open letter in Tuesday's Guardian newspaper.
The letter states that the signatories - which include politicians, journalists, activists and academics - are "concerned to hear that the government has invited the Egyptian dictator, Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to visit the UK" which could happen as early as next week.
We believe it violates the British values which the government claims to champion to welcome a ruler who has overthrown an elected government and instituted a regime of terror which has thrown back the cause of democracy in Egypt and the wider Middle East many years.
Corbyn is also believed to be opposed to the invitation of Sisi (pictured above). Speaking to Middle East Eye in August, the Labour leader said:
I would not have invited [Sisi] to the UK because of my concerns over the use of the death penalty in Egypt and the treatment of people who were part of the former government of Morsi, which was elected, and the continued imprisonment of President Morsi.
- Jeremy Corbyn
The Labour leader was criticised by the Saudi ambassador to London on Monday, in an article for the Telegraph that human rights campaigners called "disingenuous, evasive and intimidatory", for apparently "breaching respect" after calling on the Conservative government to cancel a prison training contract with the Saudi regime - which it did last week.
The invitation to Sisi was extended in July, the day after the Egyptian regime upheld a death sentence on former democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.
More: The ambassador for Saudi Arabia says Jeremy Corbyn lacks 'respect'
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