Italian writer hands back Légion d’Honneur to protest award for Egypt's Sisi

Italian journalist and writer Corrado Augias has handed back his Legion of Honour in protest over France's decision to bestow the same award on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, described by Augias as an "accomplice to atrocious criminals".

The President of Egypt, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, during his recent three-day state visit to Paris. REUTERS - POOL

Symbolic Act 

"On Monday 14 December, I will go to the French embassy to hand back the Legion of Honour. A gesture that is as serious as it is purely symbolic. I feel that I owe this act to the deep emotional and affective bond I have with France," he wrote in a letter published in the left-liberal daily La Repubblica.

"In my opinion, President Emmanuel Macron should not have given the Legion of Honour to a head of state that has objectively made itself an accomplice to atrocious criminals," he wrote Augias in the letter

“I say this for the memory of poor Giulio Regeni, but also for France, for the importance that this distinction still represents, two centuries after it was instituted," Augias, who was awarded the medal in 2007, added.

Italian writer returns French honor in protest

Corrado Augias objects France's Macron awarding Legion of Honor to Egyptian President al-Sisihttps://t.co/RlEAUjZx09 pic.twitter.com/Gxsj5pYQXD

— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) December 14, 2020

Giulio Regeni abducted

In January 2016, Giulio Regeni, 28, an Italian student, was abducted by unknown assailants and his body found tortured and horribly mutilated a few days later in the suburbs of Cairo.

The case is poisoning relations between Cairo and Rome, with Italy regularly accusing the Egyptian authorities of not cooperating and even offering Italian investigators false leads.

Italy temporarily recalled its ambassador. It is now preparing to try four Egyptian officers, including a general.

France's Macron presented the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour to President Sisi, on an official visit to France, last week, a distinction that has provoked outrage on social networks because of the repression of human rights in Egypt, according to humanitarian NGOs.

Augias, 85, has also produced television programmes about culture and was a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999.