Leaks reveal army plans to protect coup leaders from prosecution

A “top secret” document has been leaked to the media which sets out the Egyptian army’s plans to defend the coup against anti-coup activists. The Rassd media network claims that the document was obtained from the Crisis Management Centre in the Ministry of Defence. It describes “the potential scenario to defend the ‘legitimate’ coup by eliminating the anti-coup activists through legal procedures, the media and State ministries”.

According to Rassd, the proposals include “soft power strategies” to discredit the ousted regime of President Mohamed Morsi and deter legal actions against the coup leaders. “Solid legal responses” would be prepared to answer any charges against them by creating a legal committee of international humanitarian law experts to interact with human rights bodies. As well as the Ministry of Justice in Cairo and the Egyptian media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Information would be commissioned to protect the coup leadership.

The Rassd network says that it has 20 more leaked documents which will be published at a later date.