Co-founder of the April 6 Youth Movement Ahmed Maher has called for Egypt’s interior minister to be dismissed and tried for what he described as the minister’s failure to secure citizens and his continued oppression of peaceful demonstrators.
In a statement released Monday, Maher said that he also held the president accountable for recent violence.
"[Former interior minister] Habib El-Adly protected Mubarak's regime and Mubarak stayed silent on his crimes. Similarly, President Mohamed Morsi accepts all the crimes and violations of [interior minister] Mohamed Ibrahim, because it protects his regime."
Maher's statement comes after violence broke out on Sunday outside the headquarters of Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, the headquarters of Egypt’s largest Christian denomination, during a funeral for Copts killed in sectarian clashes with Muslims in Qalioubiya, north of Cairo, in the early hours of Saturday.
Unknown assailants attacked mourners with stones as they exited the cathedral complex; police then fired teargas and birdshot directly into the compound of the place of worship. Two were killed as a result of the violence.
A health ministry official also confirmed that at least 90, including 11 policemen, were injured in the attack by unknown assailants at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in the district of Abbasiya in Cairo on Sunday.
"While security was determined to protect the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters against protests, they showed an obvious reluctance that may even have been intentional in protecting the Abbasiya Cathedral. They actually attacked the Coptic funeral with teargas," the statement further added.
