Protests break out in Cairo against Egypt's Sisi

Egyptian activists held protests against the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in one of the first waves of demonstrations since the former army general tightened his grip on the country.

Videos posted on social media on Friday showed demonstrators gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the site of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Al Jazeera reported that protesters had also gathered in Alexandria and Gharbiya to call for an end to Sisi's rule.

"The people want to topple the regime," shouted demonstrators in Tahrir Square, according to a video posted on Twitter, echoing the chants of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.

A Middle East Eye correspondent in Cairo said as many as 200 protesters heading towards Tahrir Square were "violently dispersed" late Friday.

"No deaths, but I saw about 20-25 people arrested and held in police trucks. Some were released later. Currently downtown is full of riot police and plain-clothes policemen," said the correspondent, who remained anonymous because of the restrictions on journalists in the country.

Most downtown shops that normally stay open late Friday were closed.

Protesters had taken to side streets, gathering in small groups chanting "leave" and "down down with Sisi Mubarak".

The protests began in the virtual space, as anti-Sisi hashtags had been trending for weeks on social media amid growing frustration with economic conditions and lack of freedoms in the North African country.

Friday's protests came after Egyptian actor and real estate developer Mohamed Ali had posted videos depicting corruption by Sisi and the Egyptian ruling class.

The 43-year-old Egyptian whistleblower has released more than a dozen videos from self-exile in Spain, alleging that officials misappropriated millions in public funds for their personal projects.

Over the past 15 years, as the owner of a property company that contracted with the Egyptian military on major construction projects, Ali said he has had a front-row seat for all of it - and he's speaking out now because he hasn't been paid.

It was Ali who called for the protest on Friday after a football super cup final between Ahly and Zamalek.

In a video posted in the early hours of Saturday, Ali called on Egypt's Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki to remove Sisi.

"You see how the Egyptian people are doing. I hope no escalation happens. Please, your honor, issue an order to arrest Mr. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi... I hope that you side with the Egyptian people," Ali said, addressing Zaki.

"We must all stand together and forget any [disagreements] between us. He must be punished."

Ali told Zaki that the army is tasked with the protection of the Egyptian people, not an individual, no matter how important he is - referring to Sisi.

Ali saluted the protesters, saying the Friday's demonstrations had relieved the pain of the past eight years.

"I'm happy. May God help you succeed. Patriots and brave - this is the Egyptian people," he said.Reports of mismanagement of public funds and extravagant presidential palaces struck a chord with many Egyptian, who have been suffering economically under Sisi's austerity measures.

"Now you can see families and friends who rarely discussed politics or who had very different opinions agreeing on [Ali's] statements," Noura, a retired journalist who wished to be identified only by her first name because of political conditions in Egypt, told Middle East Eye earlier this week.

Noura said she will participate in the protests that Ali has encouraged: "We should not be afraid of the regime, and people should come together to express their discontent."

On Friday, Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said the fact that the protesters are risking their lives to demonstrate against their government is a sign of the dire situation in Egypt.

Sisi came to power in a 2013 coup that ousted democratically elected former president Mohamed Morsi.

Since then, he has snuffed out all forms of opposition and jailed as many as 60,000 dissidents.

Sisi has also blacklisted Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.

Early in his reign, he showed that he would not tolerate protests, when Egyptian forces killed hundreds of anti-coup protesters in Cairo in 2013.

(Middle east eye)