Cairo - Egypt's Foreign Ministry has expressed its "absolute rejection" of a statement by US Senator John McCain criticising the country's crackdown on human rights and democracy under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
Thursday's statement came on the seventh anniversary of the January 25, 2011 popular uprising that toppled Egypt's longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, ushering in years of instability punctuated by military and Islamist rule, and al-Sisi's rise to power.
The ministry says McCain's remarks "included unfounded accusations, fallacies, and misinformation," and "flimsy claims."
McCain's comments a day earlier say that "over the past few years, we have witnessed Egypt lurch dangerously backwards. President al-Sisi's unprecedented crackdown on political activism and fundamental human rights has led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of dissidents, including 19 American citizens and nearly 3500 young people."
