Former minister calls protest crackdown "organised crime"

Egypt’s former Information Minister, Salah Abdul-Maqsoud, has condemned the crackdown on the sit-ins in Al-Nahda and Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Squares and described it as “organised crime carried out by a coup regime”. He claimed that the coup leadership went ahead with the massacres despite international warnings.

Speaking to Aljazeera.net, he said: “What happened [on Wednesday] was a crime of a magnitude that Egypt has never witnessed before, even during the times of occupation… Killing was carried out with cold blood and it sank below the basic minimum standards of human morality.”

He insisted that everyone involved in inciting people to kill, encouraging the killings or taking part directly in the killing of fellow Egyptians would be held accountable by the general public and prosecuted sooner or later.

Commenting on the severity of the crackdown, Abdul-Maqsoud said: “These massacres disclosed the real nature of the coup regime and its government to the world. That savage nature, which has not yet been sated by Egyptian blood, even went so far as to burn the corpses to try to hide its crimes.”

The ex-minister brushed aside allegations that pro-Morsi supporters attacked churches and government buildings in fire. He stressed the peaceful nature of the protests even after the massacres. He concluded his interview by asking journalists to make sure that they are truthful in their reporting.