By Mohamed Mahmoud
CAIRO (AA) - Egyptian security forces on Thursday shut down a prominent human rights NGO in Cairo, according to the NGO’s director.
"Police from [Cairo’s] Azbakiya police station shut the center on Thursday and sequestered its property for inspection without providing a reason," Aida Seif al-Dawla, director of the Al-Nadim Center for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, said via Facebook.
According to al-Dawla, Egypt’s Health Ministry issued an order to close the center one year ago -- an order the NGO had subsequently appealed.
"We’re still awaiting a final decision on the matter from the State Commissioner’s Authority," she said.
She went on to assert that the closure of the NGO, which provides rehabilitation services to victims of violence, was part of a concerted campaign by the Egyptian regime "to silence its critics".
The Egyptian authorities, for their part, have yet to comment on al-Dawla’s assertions.
Cairo faces mounting criticism of its human rights record under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power following a bloody 2013 military coup against Egypt’s first democratically elected president.