Senior Freedom and Justice official calls for end to police violence

The Vice-Chairman of Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has called for an end to police violence and killings. Dr. Essam El-Erian said that nobody can accept such actions by the supposed forces of law and order. Although he was not explicit in his condemnation of the police for the recent killings of protestors, he hinted that they were carried out “while the police were doing their work”.

“Such incidents must not be met with silence,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “These killing violate the law and the constitution.”

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Apart from the investigation being carried out by the Public Prosecution Service, El-Erian called for urgent investigations to be carried out by the Interior Ministry. “Purging and purifying the police and security services was and remains the main aim of the revolution,” he wrote. While pointing out that security is badly needed in Egypt, he insisted that it must not be at the expense of the Egyptians and their dignity.

El-Erian recognised that reforming the security services is not an easy task but it is feasible and the current Minister of the Interior can do it. “All of us know that it is a difficult and hard mission because there was no democracy and the dogma of the security services has been nurtured on the notion of protecting the ruler at the expense of the people,” he wrote, “but this [reforming the security services] is still feasible.”