Egypt rejects Kerry’s foreign ‘tutelage’ over human rights

FILE -- This Dec. 7, 2011 photo, shows Hossam Bahgat in his office at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Garden City, Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's state-news agency MENA reported on Thursday, March 17, 2016, that an Egyptian judicial commission has ordered the assets of four people frozen, including Hossam Bahgat, one of the country's most prominent investigative journalists and the head of Arabic Network for Human Rights Information Gamal Eid. (Sarah Rafea via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT FILE -- This Dec. 7, 2011 photo, shows Hossam Bahgat in his office at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in Garden City, Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's state-news agency MENA reported on Thursday, March 17, 2016, that an Egyptian judicial commission has ordered the assets of four people frozen, including Hossam Bahgat, one of the country's most prominent investigative journalists and the head of Arabic Network for Human Rights Information Gamal Eid. (Sarah Rafea via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

By Associated Press March 19, 2016 1 min read

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s foreign minister says he rejects “tutelage” over human rights from other countries, in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent comments on the “deterioration” of Egypt’s human rights situation.

The state-run MENA news agency cites Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry as saying Saturday that human rights are a domestic concern and the responsibility of the Egyptian government.

Kerry said Friday that the reopening of an investigation into non-governmental rights groups comes amid “a wider backdrop of arrests and intimidation of political opposition, journalists, civil society activists and cultural figures.”

MENA reported on Thursday that a judicial commission has ordered the assets of four people frozen as they are being investigated for illegally receiving funds from abroad. They include investigative journalist Hossam Bahgat and top rights advocate Gamal Eid.