CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecution ordered the arrest of four former Ministry of Interior officials for allegedly giving orders to open fire on peaceful protesters on Jan. 28.
The officials include former head of Cairo security Ismail Al-Shair; former head of public security Ali Fayid; former head of State Security forces Ahmed Ramzi; and former head of the Cairo State Security Investigative Unit Hussein Abdel Rahman.
A security official said the four are being prosecuted because they were "in charge of those who pulled the triggers."
Another three police officers in Alexandria were arrested for the same reasons.
Deputy General Prosecutor, Adel El-Saeed, and official spokesperson of the General Prosecution office said that the allegations include inciting and assisting in the killing of protesters; attempted murder of protesters; following the former interior minister in breaking orders issued by the government to maintain general security.
El-Saeed said that during the interrogations, Abdel Rahman admitted that he issued orders to burn State Security documents due to their confidentiality and their relation to national security, adding that there are copies saved on the authority’s computers which were not destroyed.
The computer programming companies who set up the programs for the State Security Investigative Unit confirmed that the information is saved on a network.
El-Saeed said that investigations in the violence against protesters is ongoing in a number of governorates, adding that they will be interrogating former minister of interior Habib El-Adly over the matter.
Alexandria’s Prosecution Office also ordered the arrest of three police officers for allegedly opening fire on protesters, killing and injuring many of them. The officers include the head of El-Raml Police Station Wael El-Komy; deputy head of El-Gomrok Police Station Moataz Askalany and deputy head of El-Montaza Police Station Mohamed Saafan.
This comes after the Prosecution Office received numerous complaints from the families of the victims against these three officers.
The interrogation of General Mohamed Ibrahim, head of Alexandria Security, is also ongoing.
Anti-government protests that erupted on January 25 saw violent clashes between El-Adly's forces and demonstrators, and left more than 600 dead, according to rights groups, and over 6,000 injured. –Additional reporting by AFP
