ISTANBUL
At least 62 people remain missing since August 14, 2013, when Egyptian security forces violently dispersed two protest camps held in support of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, the U.K.-based Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR-UK) has said.
At least 1,150 suporters of Morsi – who had been ousted in a military coup weeks earlier – were killed in the dispersals, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
In a Saturday statement, the AOHR-UK said at least 129 Egyptians had gone missing on the day of the twin dispersals. While 67 were subsequently found, either dead or alive, 62 remain unaccounted for, according to the rights group.
Egypt has been roiled by violence since Morsi, who won the country's first free presidential polls in mid-2012, was ousted by the military on July 3, 2013 after only one year in office.
Six weeks after Morsi’s ouster and imprisonment, Egyptian security forces violently dispersed two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda squares, killing hundreds and injuring thousands.
Since Morsi's ouster, the Egyptian authorities – led by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, a former army chief – have waged a relentless crackdown on dissent that has primarily targeted Morsi’s supporters and members of his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.
The ongoing crackdown, which has been harshly criticized by international rights groups, has seen hundreds killed and tens of thousands thrown behind bars.
