(AFP Photo)
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim declared the security apparatuses’ “success” in implementing the plan to secure the streets during the anniversary of the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda encampments.
He was cited by state-run MENA on Sunday as saying that security forces also succeeded in “thwarting the plots by elements belonging to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organisation to terrorise citizens.”
Ibrahim said this after viewing a comprehensive report on Saturday on the performance of policemen during the previous 72 hours.
Deadly clashes occurred on Thursday, which marks the one-year anniversary of the dispersals of the encampments, and on Friday, leaving a total of 14 people dead, according to Forensics Authority spokesman Hisham Abdel Hameed.
The interior minister added that “14 August will remain the immortal memory of the martyrdom of 114 policemen.”
The two encampments set up to show support for ousted president and Muslim Brotherhood politician Mohamed Morsi that were forcibly dispersed on 14 August 2013 in what was described by Human Rights Watch as “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”
Exact figures on the number of protesters killed during the dispersals are still disputed but hover near 1,000 deaths, according to two separate counts.
WikiThawra, a website dedicated to documenting the Egyptian revolution, put the death toll of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in dispersal at 969 and that of Al-Nahda dispersal at 96.
Human Rights Watch said they could confirm 817 deaths in the Rabaa dispersal, but that he death toll is likely more than 1,000. In a report based on a one-year investigation, the international watchdog said the dispersal “probably” amounted to crimes against humanity.
Official figures are lower. The Forensics Authority announced 627 deaths in the Rabaa Al-Adaweya dispersal and 21 in Al-Nahda.
Since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013, Brotherhood members including Morsi, have been subject to an arrest campaign and numerous have been put on trial on a wide range of charges.
Activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation were banned by court in September 2013. In December, the cabinet of then-prime minister Hazem El-Beblawi designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.
The Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party was ordered dissolved by a top court last week, on 9 August.
