Egypt's president wanted his 60 Minutes interview killed, so CBS is marketing it even harder

It's been widely reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has imprisoned thousands of political activists. It's also true that Sisi has repeatedly said those prisoners don't exist.

Yet something changed when Sisi denied imprisoning political opponents once again in a 60 Minutes interview set to air Sunday. And now Egypt's government wants the interview pulled from the air, Al Jazeera reports.

In a teaser clip for the 60 Minutes interview, CBS News' Scott Pelley asks Sisi about Human Rights Watch's estimate that Egypt is holding 60,000 political opponents in jail. "I don't know where they got that figure," Sisi responded, claiming that "there are no political prisoners in Egypt." Sisi also revealed his country was cooperating with Israel to fight terrorists in North Sinai.

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As The Washington Post puts it, "those two statements are newsy, but not necessarily new." But it was apparently "not the kind of news [Sisi's] government wanted broadcast," a CBS spokesperson tells Al Jazeera. "The Egyptian ambassador" contacted 60 Minutes "shortly after" filming and said "the interview could not be aired," per CBS.

60 Minutes, meanwhile, said it has no plans to scrap the interview. It's now selling the Sunday spot as "The interview Egypt's government doesn't want on TV."