(file photo)
Mohamed Omar
Members of the 6 April Youth Movement marched on Monday from the Egyptian High Court of Justice in Cairo to Mohamed Mahmoud Street in what they say is the beginning of an escalation that will continue if their demands are not met.
The movement is demanding the people who killed one of its members, 16 year-old Gaber ‘Jika’ Salah, be brought to justice.
Spokesperson for the movement, Khaled El Masry, explained that the group assembled at the high court and protested outside the prosecutor general’s office. Following this they marched to the Egyptian stock exchange building where they stayed for 30 minutes. The march ended at Mohamed Mahmoud Street, where Salah sustained the injuries that eventually caused his death.
The group stained the steps of the court red to symbolise the blood of those who have died and have not had retribution.
Salah died after being shot in the back of the head during clashes between demonstrators and police on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in November of last year. He stayed in a coma for five days, eventually succumbing to his injuries.
El Masry said: “We want justice for Jika. We want the murderers to appear in the high court.” El Masry added that the group does not know who fired the gun that killed Salah, but he did say “the Ministry of Interior are protecting them. It needs to be cleansed.”
In a statement on Monday one of the movement’s founders Ahmed Maher said that they “will not allow the case to be suspended and will begin escalation from today, Monday”.
“We will not stand idly by and watch the assistant interior minister talk about an unidentified assassin killing Jika with a glass marble or an unknown car running over [Mohamed] El Gendy,” he added.
Maher blamed President Mohamed Morsi for the deaths of demonstrators and the consequences of reactions to the deaths. He said that he blames Morsi “because of the absence of justice, the silence on the crimes of the Ministry of Interior and the continuation of the old approach”.
The group marched from Abdeen Court to the Egyptian High Court of Justice last Wednesday with the same demands.
When asked about what sort of escalation can be expected from the group, El Masry said, “We will keep our options open. We are a non-violent group and our activities reflect this.” He added: “We will use new ways of non-violent protest but we are not declaring what they will be right now.”
