The newly appointed Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Youssef has alleged that he was not responsible for killing over 26 Sudanese refugees who staged a sit-in close to UNHCR's Cairo office. Youssef, a former Giza Security directorate, is accused by human rights activists of giving orders to clear the garden from the protesting refugees on the evening of 30 December 2005. The violent crackdown on 3000 Sudanese, who had been camped there for two months, lead to dozens being killed. More than 2000 of the refugees were detained and 645 were deported. During a meeting with reporters at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, Youssef said that he did not violate the law in dispersing the sit-in. “I told UNHCR about the problem, but it refused to intervene to end the protest, and they gave us the right to deal with the demonstrators,” Youssef told reporters. Youssef added that the police first negotiated with the protesters to clear the garden. Security forces employed water cannons against them when the protesters refused to leave. He argued that the “injuries” were “due to overcrowding and the resistance by protesters,” not police brutality.
