Investigative website Disclose published in Sunday 21 November, 2021 dozens of classified documents which it said showed the misuse of intelligence provided to Egypt by a secret team of four French soldiers and six ex-military personnel.
Accoring to Disclose French-EEgyptian “military cooperation exercise, kept secret from the public, was diverted from its original mission, that of reconnaissance of terrorist activity, in favour of a campaign of arbitrary executions. It involved state crimes about which the French presidential office was kept constantly informed, but which took no action.”
The non for profit invistagativ journlasit project stated that “At the beginning of 2016, a French team was secretly sent to Egypt’s western desert region, one with a surface area of 700,000 square kilometres stretching from the River Nile to the border between Egypt and Libya. It was the start of operation Sirli. It involved ten people, made up of four soldiers and six former servicemen now working in the private sector – these were two pilots, and four systems analysts. The latter were employed by CAE Aviation, a Luxembourg-based company specialised in imaging and communications interception. CAE Aviation also rented out to the French military intelligence services, the DRM, the key tool for the operation; this was a Merlin III light aircraft equipped for surveillance and reconnaissance, which would act as the ears and eyes for the team.
Contacted by Disclose on several occasions, CAE Aviation declined to provide any comment.”
One day after the disclosed first report was publishing France’s armed forces minister called for an investigation according to Reuters.
Killed in Egypt was one of sources for the report provided information about the killing of Engneer Ahmed El Fiki, a 39 year old father of four, who was killed in an airstrike by Egyptian Army.
On 25 of Novmber, 2021, the French Channel four will air a full investigative documents about abuses. The in depth report is a collaborative between France2tv and Disclose, a non for profit journalism company.