‘I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil' — Albert Einstein Much of the anger of those who took part in the 25 January 2011 Revolution was directed at the Mubarak-era security establishment. The Interior Ministry had long been seen as focussed exclusively on ensuring the survival of the regime and, possibly, on securing a succession scenario in which Gamal Mubarak would take over from his father. The police tortured with impunity. The much feared State Security Department (Amn Al-Dawla) which dealt with political dissent operated as a state within the state. Its activities included spying on citizens and rigging every kind of election. Its approval was needed for appointments in political parties, syndicates, universities, the media, sports' clubs and even the army. By the end of 2013, and despite the ouster of two presidents, the security establishment seemed as deeply rooted as ever. Bruised by the revolution that forced Mubarak from power it is now staging a comeback. Its activities, say some human rights groups, are more repressive than ever. As 2013 was drawing to a close interim President Adli Mansour ratified a new protest law. Immediately about 50 activists were arrested and referred to trial. More than 500 senior officers who served in the loathed State Security Department – renamed National Security following the 25 January Revolution – have returned to their jobs and the security establishment is pushing hard for anti-terror legislation that critics say would be tantamount to adding emergency provisions to the statute books. But the biggest problem, according to human rights groups and youth activists seeking to build a democratic state, is that the security forces remain immune to prosecution. They work, as always, with the assumption of impunity, the use of excessive force, even the killing of citizens, will not necessarily result in prosecution. On 10 December 10 local human rights groups and three international organisations – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Federation of Human Rights – issued a somber report reminding the Egyptian authorities that not one credible investigation into 13 key incidents, resulting in the deaths of 2,330 people, has been carried out. The killings date from the past three years, beginning with the death of 846 people in the 25 January 2011 Revolution against Mubarak. The number of victims of excessive police force, says the report, shot up following Mohamed Morsi's ouster six months ago. Nearly half of the 2,330 deaths noted occurred following the government's decision to disperse the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins on 14 August, a day on which nearly 1,000 people were killed. Officers who were put on trial for their alleged role in killing hundreds of protesters in the 25 January Revolution were found not guilty after the police failed to provide any evidence to indict them, according to judges. It is a pattern that has been endlessly repeated. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood spent much of their year in power trying to woo the security establishment. They won few allies, though at one stage Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim appeared to respond to their courtship. The result was that he was repeatedly booed during – and on occasion expelled from – the funerals of police officers killed in terror or criminal attacks in the first half of 2013. Ibrahim was accused of acting on behalf of the Brotherhood and ordering riot police to clash with secular opponents. At least a dozen protesters were killed. Ibrahim then had a last-minute change of heart and joined the ranks of the majority of Egyptians who came out on 30 June to demand the removal of Morsi and early presidential elections. The violence police used to disperse Brotherhood supporters in Rabaa, and in many other confrontations since July, subsequently made Ibrahim a target for terrorist attacks. He survived an assassination attempt on 6 September. “There is mutual hatred between the police and the Brotherhood. The police believe that the Brotherhood, Mohamed Al-Baradei [Nobel Peace Prize winner and for six weeks after 30 June vice president] and 6 April Movement are the reasons why they were humiliated and beaten in the revolution of 25 January 2011,” says Ahmed Hassan, a leading member of the 6 April Democratic Front. “They are now exacting their revenge on all of them, using their placemen in the media to say what happened on 25 January was not a popular revolution. For them only 30 June counts, because it brought an end to Brotherhood rule.” Morsi's record on human rights and holding the police accountable is deplorable. He kept the same policies as Mubarak and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) which ruled for almost a year and half, from 11 February 2011 until presidential elections were held in May 2012. Morsi ignored his campaign pledges to seek justice for those who had been murdered. He did order an independent judicial committee to investigate all incidents in which Egyptians were killed from 25 January 2011 until the beginning of his presidency on 30 June 2012 but when the committee delivered its report Morsi refused to make it public. Morsi even opted to honour former SCAF leader Hussein Tantawi, and his deputy, Chief of Staff Sami Anan, even though many activists wanted them held accountable for the deaths of activists while in power. Morsi appointed prosecutor-general Ibrahim Talaat failed to press charges against any of the police or army personnel whom the report said were involved in killing protesters. Segments of the report involving the role of the army were leaked to Al-Jazeera Mubasher Egypt, known for its Brotherhood bias, only after Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi backed the revolt against Morsi on 30 June. “Government after government since Mubarak was overthrown has promised that justice for the martyrs would be a top priority,” said leading human rights activist Sally Toma during a news conference held on Saturday, 14 December, to mark the second anniversary of the death of 19 people in clashes with soldiers in front of the cabinet headquarters in downtown Cairo. “Not only are these promises ignored but more people are being killed by the police. No serious investigation has been initiated and no one has ever been held to account.” The report issued by the 13 Egyptian and international human rights organisations appeared on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. They called on the Egyptian authorities “to acknowledge, and seriously and thoroughly investigate the killing of up to 1,000 people by security forces dispersing Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins on 14 August 2013. The government has not established a public record of what occurred that day and the office of the prosecutor-general has yet to investigate and hold members of security forces accountable for excessive and unjustified use of lethal force.” The report pointed out that although Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi had created a Transitional Justice Ministry following Morsi's removal: “it has yet to take any meaningful steps towards truth-seeking and justice in relation to allegations of gross human rights violations by security forces over the past three years”. “There can be no hope for the rule of law and political stability in Egypt, much less for some modicum of justice for victims, without accountability for what may be the single biggest incident of mass killing in Egypt's recent history on 14 August,” says Gasser Abdel-Razek, associate director at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “For almost three years successive Egyptian governments have ignored calls for justice as police brutality and the accompanying death toll continue to mount.” At Saturday's news conference held on the second anniversary of clashes with the army in front of the cabinet families of several victim, carrying the pictures of their loved ones, said they were determined to continue the fight for justice. “We do not believe what happened on 30 June was a military coup,” said Riham Al-Sharkawi who lost her brother, Rami, two years ago. “But we believe that what we have been witnessing recently has been a coup against everything we fought for in the 25 January Revolution.” Al-Sharkawi referred bitterly to the recent demonstration law, the arrest of activists from non-Muslim Brotherhood groups, and vicious attacks against youth organisations and political parties that remain loyal to what she describes as the principles of the 25 January Revolution – freedom, social justice, and the building of a democratic state that respects basic human rights. “Nowadays, in an atmosphere of sharp polarisation, anyone who dares to oppose police brutality or unjust laws is attacked as a Brotherhood supporter, a fifth columnist or a US agent,” she says. “We will not be intimidated. We will not give up our dreams or abandon our demands.”
