AFP / KHALED DESOUKI
Twenty four Families of victims of the Maspero massacre have submitted complaints to the general prosecutor against former figures of the Egyptian military junta, including Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi, General Sami Anan, General Hamdy Badeen, and Major General Ibrahim Damati for their roles in the incident, requesting they be referred to criminal prosecution.
Eleven months after the event, no high ranking military officials have been prosecuted for the violence in which 28 protesters died after being shot by live ammunition, or after being run over by armoured vehicles.
The Maspero Youth Union said it intends to submit its own complaints later this week, against the senior army officials who were in power during the massacre.
The movement also announced plans on Saturday to take state-owned newspaper Al-Akhbar Al-Youm to court if it does not issue an apology for a short story it published on Saturday.
The article, entitled Objectionable call to occupy the television in the anniversary of Maspero, details an alleged plot to forcefully take over the state television and radio building on 9 October, the first anniversary of the Maspero massacre.
Mina Magdy, a spokesman for the Maspero Youth Union and a member of its political committee, stated that the movement would not seek legal action if Al-Akbar Al-Youm issued an apology and retraction in its Sunday paper. However, the rights group intends to proceed with a legal complaint in the absence of an apology.
The Maspero Youth Union, which has called for protests on 9 October, along with a number of other groups, vehemently denied any plans to escalate what is expected to be a peaceful march. “We won’t go near the television building,” said Magdy. “We plan on peacefully occupying Maspero Square. Our only demand for that day will be to ask for justice for those who died last year.”
The march is scheduled to begin at Shubra and will end in Maspero Square, following the same route taken by protesters a year previously, the night a group of predominantly Coptic Christian demonstrators were attacked by soldiers, leaving 28 dead.
