No difference between Sisi, Mubarak

An advisor to the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) says there is no difference between the governments of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at United Emirates University, said in a statement which appeared on his twitter page that Abu Dhabi should stop supporting the Sisi administration.

The governments of Sisi and Mubarak “are two faces for the same coin," He added.

He described the Egyptian government as a “police regime” that arrested thousands of people under the pretext of fighting terrorism and Muslim Brotherhood group.

Abdullah claimed that the UAE government, despite its support for Sisi's coup politically and financially, objects to the existence of 20 to 40,000 political prisoners in Egypt.

"This is a politically and morally unacceptable price," he added.

"Whatever happens to be the truth about the return of the authoritarian state in Egypt, what really matters is that no one should exploit the support of the UAE and the other [Persian] Gulf states for Egypt's stability in order to execute an authoritarian agenda.”

Abdullah added that the UAE and other Persian Gulf Arab states should “never align themselves on the side of a government that undermines the dignity of the Egyptian people and violate his rights and freedoms night and day."

Egypt has been the scene of massive anti-government protests with continuous clashes between security forces and supporters of former President Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by Sisi, the then army commander.

Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested while dozens have been sentenced to death in mass trials.