Hundreds of people are expected to join protests outside Downing Street against the visit of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who is accused of a catalogue of human rights abuses.

A broad coalition of Egyptian and British groups has called for demonstrations on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, when the former army chief will hold talks at No 10. Sisi set off for his visit on early on Wednesday morning, Egyptian state media said.

Sameh Shafi, coordinator of one of the protest groups, Stop Sisi, said: “We’re going to make life very difficult for him. The worst thing would be for him to walk in scot-free. The aim is to show the opposite of what he’s showing – that he’s a legitimate president, everyone loves him. The aim of the protest is to show that he’s not that person, to show the exact opposite of the message [he wants to convey] and make him famous for his crimes.

“I think the British politicians and everyone here need to understand that his only selling point – that he’s a military man who brings stability – is the exact opposite of what’s happening [in Egypt].”

Make sure you stand with us against Sisi's visit to the UK next Wednesday outside 10 Downing st 5pm #StopSisi pic.twitter.com/zfg4ovxUEx — #StopSisi (@WhoIsSisi) October 27, 2015

Opposition to Sisi’s visit has been mounting since it was announced in June, the day after an Egyptian court upheld a death sentence against the previous president, Mohamed Morsi, whom Sisi deposed in an army coup in July 2013.

The UK is conducting its own investigation into Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, and Sisi is seen by David Cameron as a bulwark in the struggle against extremism in the region.

At a press conference on Tuesday at Church House in central London, the groups behind the protest stressed that they are a broad church. The commentator and Spectator contributing editor Peter Oborne, who will speak at Wednesday’s protest, said: “This is not a matter of right or left. This is a matter of right and wrong, and it’s entirely wrong that Sisi is coming to Britain.”

Among the other organisations involved are Egypt Solidarity Initiative, Federation of Student Islamic Societies, 6th April Youth Movement, Muslim Association of Britain, Stop the War Coalition and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). Representatives from the National Union of Students are also expected to attend.

The demonstration was organised before the exact timing of Sisi’s visit emerged, after which another protest was hastily organised for Thursday at 10am. Shafi said they could announce further protests as the movements of the Egyptian president’s entourage, particularly the trade delegation, became known.

The protest organisers accuse Sisi of reintroducing dictatorship to Egypt, waging war on free speech and presiding over a regime in which tens of thousands of his political opponents have been jailed and in which torture, enforced disappearances and rape have been rife.



The single biggest loss of life came during the Rabaa massacre of 14 August 2013, in which estimates of the death toll ranged from 800 to well over 1,000. Human Rights Watch described it as “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history”.



In an interview with the BBC ahead of his visit, Sisi defended Egypt’s sweeping security laws and insisted he was still taking the country on a path to democracy. “We want some stability,” he said. “We don’t want to do this by force or suppression. We want to regulate and organise society.”

Downing Street said Cameron and Sisi spoke to each other by telephone on late on Tuesday, and agreed on the need for “the tightest possible security” at the Sinai resort airport where a doomed Russian airliner departed at the weekend.

Egyptian state media said on Wednesday that a suicide bomber has detonated a car full of explosives at the main gate of a police club in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, killing at least three people and wounding 10 others.

The UK government has been keen to engage with Sisi on security and has licensed £85m of arms sales since the 2013 coup, including £40m-worth of components for military combat vehicles, licensed in March this year.



Andrew Smith of CAAT said: “The UK should be leading the calls for change in Egypt, not rolling out the red carpet for its increasingly authoritarian ruler. We are protesting because we want an end to arms sales to Egypt and an end to the political support that bolsters the regime.”

No 10 has defended the talks, arguing that “the stronger our working relationship, the more able we are to have necessary and frank discussions about issues on which we disagree”.

