Ahead of a visit by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to Berlin, prominent human rights organizations have urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to pressure Cairo over its rights violations.

In an open letter to Merkel on Tuesday, representatives of five international human rights bodies, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, warned against “the gravest human rights crisis in Egypt in decades” under Sisi.

Front Line Defenders, World Organization Against Torture, also known by its French acronym OMCT, and Euro‐Mediterranean Human Rights Network were the other signatories to the letter.

“We urge you in the strongest terms to make … Egyptian authorities take prompt and concrete measures to put an end to government policies that systematically violate Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law,” they said.

The rights representatives also demanded that the Egyptian judiciary release those imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly.

The letter said Germany must “continue to freeze the transfer of all arms and security related items that could be used for repression until Egyptian authorities have carried out judicial and impartial investigations into the killings of hundreds of protesters by police and security forces, and bring those responsible to justice.”

The five rights bodies further called for a retrial of those convicted in mass trials for their alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

According to the rights groups, over 40,000 people, including hundreds of lawyers, have been arrested, indicted or sentenced between July 2013 and May 2014 by the Egyptian judiciary.

Merkel is scheduled to meet with the Egyptian leader on Wednesday in Berlin.

Sisi came to power in Egypt after the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July 2013 by the Egyptian army, headed by Sisi back then.

The Sisi government has since then launched a heavy-handed clampdown on supporters and members of Morsi’s Muslim Bortherhood.

Hundreds of Morsi’s supporters have been killed and thousands of others detained during Cairo’s crackdown. This is while many of those behind bars have received death sentences in speedy mass trials, including Morsi himself.

XLS/MKA/HMV