Egypt's prosecutor has ordered four key figures of the country's notorious ministry of interior to be imprisoned in connection to shooting and killing protesters during Egypt's 18 days of protests that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak from power. The four figures on the list were all assistant ministers to former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly. Those imprisoned include Ismaeal Al Shaer, Cairo's former chief of security, Adli Fayed, former head of Public Security department, Ahmed Ramzy, former head of security forces and Hassan Abdel Rahman, former chief of the State Security Investigation Department. Former minister Adly is currently on trial for his role in police and state security using excessive force against protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Suez and Alexandria in January and February. Rights groups have accused the ministry of interior of using extreme force against peaceful protesters since the demonstrations started on January 25. Groups reject official numbers and accuse the ministry of interior of killing at least 650 people. Adel Al Saied, a spokesman for the Attorney General said that that the prosecution attributed several charges to the four accused, including “participation in crimes by agreement, inciting and assisting in the killing of the demonstrators, and attempt of murder of others.” According to state television, Al-Saied added that the prosecutor is investigating Hassan Abdel Rahman regarding the destruction of many important files and documents where he admitted to giving the orders “due to the secrecy of some documents or their relation to the State Security.” In the coastal city of Alexandria, hundreds of police officers protested the prosecution's decision to imprison three police officers four days on a pending investigation, according to local reports. The sit-in took place Friday west of the port city. The three police officers are facing a list charges including murder, attempted murder of demonstrators, causing injuries and firing live ammunition. The police officers are Wael Al Komy, head of investigation department at Al Raml police station. Al Komy has a bad reputation among human rights supporters in the country where they often accused him of torturing or orchestrating torture against citizens. The police officers in the sit in have defended their colleagues by calling it “self defense.” According to reports what they said they had done “was self-defense of the police station, against the attack by thugs and bandits.” In related news, local newspapers quoted judicial sources saying that three high ranking officers have been arrested in Suez and the prosecutor has decided to imprison them 15 days until an investigation ends. The three officers are all heads of investigation departments at the Suez State Security. They are also facing similar charges of murder and attempt to murder during the protests that Suez had witnessed. Rights groups say at least 30 people were killed during the unrest in the city. The city of Suez was one of the early cities within Egypt to witness excessive use of force against protesters and for several days during the protests that brought the old regime down, the city was under a massive military siege. BM
