• Sen. Chris Murphy said the Trump administration’s September waiver of human rights conditions on more than $300m of military aid to Egypt touched off a crackdown on independent journalism in the country.
  • A court in Cairo ordered the closure of the news website Madr Masa and fined its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, a ruling Amnesty International called a crushing blow to press freedom.
  • Egyptian authorities arrested six journalists at the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh and charged them with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
  • The State Department said it waived the conditions on a portion of military aid to Egypt in September because of the country’s importance to US national security interests.
  • Washington sends Egypt about $1.73bn a year in military assistance, one of the largest US military aid allocations in the world.
  • Timothy E Kaldas of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy said Washington and Brussels have prioritized strategic ties with Cairo over human rights and the rule of law.

Cairo court closes Madr Masa and fines editor Lina Attalah

Sen. Chris Murphy told an audience at the Middle East Institute in Washington this week that he was in no doubt the two developments were connected — the September release of withheld military funding and the arrests of journalists.

“The minute that money was released, the crackdown began in an absolutely devastating way,” he said.

Over the past month, a series of arrests has taken place of journalists at two of the few remaining independent news outlets in Egypt, where newspapers and TV stations are closely controlled by the authorities.

On Tuesday, a court in Cairo ordered the closure of the news website Madr Masa and fined its editor-in-chief, Lina Attalah, in what Amnesty International called “a crushing blow to press freedom.”

Earlier this month, authorities arrested six journalists at the independent fact-checking platform Matsda2sh and charged them with belonging to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Asked by the BBC about the waiver in light of this month’s arrests of journalists, the State Department said the decision was “due to Egypt’s importance to US national security interests, the concrete security cooperation Egypt provides to the United States, and the need to maintain that cooperation to address regional security challenges.” It added that it maintained dialogue with Cairo on a “full range of issues” but would “not comment on private diplomatic conversations.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio waived human rights conditions on $320m of military aid in September in light of Egypt’s role since the launch of the US war with Iran, according to a letter addressed to various Congressional committees. Egypt assisted negotiations between the United States and Iran.

Exercising the waiver authority was “essential” for the US-Egypt relationship, “particularly in light of Egypt’s helpful role following Operation Epic Fury,” according to a September 4 memo seen by Reuters that bore Rubio’s signature.

US law allows up to $320m of the annual funding to be withheld, conditioned on Egypt meeting democracy and human rights requirements. Those restrictions can be waived by the administration on national security grounds.

Murphy, who chairs a congressional committee on the Middle East and counterterrorism, said he had been a critic of both the Biden and Trump administrations over the issue.

“To the extent that there was any glimmer left of political speech in Egypt, it is gone for one proximate reason: The United States government abandoned the people of Egypt and decided to remove all conditions on our funding,” Murphy told the Middle East Institute.

“Any hope of a true, meaningful political opposition rebirthing in Egypt has been shattered by this decision,” he added.

Rubio’s move followed a similar decision by the Biden administration in 2024, when then Secretary of State Anthony Blinken waived human rights conditions to grant the full military aid allocation to Egypt as the US sought Cairo’s role in mediating between Israel and Hamas in the war in Gaza. Under Biden prior to 2024, the US withheld portions of the annual military allocation over Egypt’s human rights record.

Cairo has remained a close regional ally of the United States despite what human rights groups say are widespread abuses under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government, including torture and enforced disappearances. Sisi denies there are political prisoners in Egypt. He has previously said stability and security are paramount, adding authorities have promoted rights by trying to provide basic needs such as jobs and housing.

Timothy E Kaldas, deputy director of The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, a Washington DC-based think tank, said the conviction of Attalah and the closure of Madr Masa marked an unprecedented escalation in repression of press freedoms in Egypt. He said both the United States and the European Union had been prioritizing their strategic relations with Egypt over human rights and the rule of law in the country.

“It’s been fostering a sense of impunity on the part of the Egyptian authorities that we’re seeing play out,” he told the BBC.

“Egypt is getting signals from both sides of the Atlantic that human rights and the rule of law are no longer a priority, and they’re testing the limits of that,” he said, adding: “The fact that they’re not getting more robust pushback reinforces the wrong message.”

The group Reporters Without Borders describes Egypt as one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists.

Washington sends Egypt about $1.73bn per year, making it one of the world’s biggest recipients of US military assistance. US military aid to Cairo began after the 1978 Camp David Accords and the peace treaty that followed between Egypt and Israel, and successive administrations have viewed the world’s most populous Arab country as a critical US ally in the region.