Sisi sends 11 intelligence officers into early retirement

Following a presidential order issued by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, 11 senior intelligence officials have been sent into early retirement, in a move thought to show the president getting rid of his rivals or those opposed to him.

In the unprecedented move, officials who occupy high level positions, in particular those in security and sovereign positions, were given order to retire days after a former minister in ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s government and a Muslim Brotherhood leader, Yahia Hamed, revealed that sovereign parties contacted the group to discuss a way to resolve the current crisis in Egypt and a post Al-Sisi phase.

It also comes days after Al-Shorouk newspaper published a report on the existence of supporters of the former Egyptian presidential candidate, Ahmed Shafik, in the ranks of sovereign institutions.

According to Al-Sisi’s order, 11 of the intelligence agency’s senior officers were sent into retirement. The document states that nine officers were sent into retirement with pensions, based on their request. While two other officers were sent into retirement with pensions due to their inability to carry out their duties.

Arabi 21 has obtained a document, which is in effect a presidential decree issued by Sisi himself ordering the retirement of a number of senior intelligence officers. This comes only two days after a former Morsi minister and Muslim Brotherhood leader disclosed about communications conducted with the group by sovereign parties over how to come out of the current crisis in Egypt and in search of a post Sisi era. It would seem that this has aroused profound concern within the presidential institution in Cairo.

The decision to send into retirement a number of intelligence officers comes only days after the Egyptian Al-Shurooq newspaper published a report about the existence within certain sovereign institutions of senior officers who support former presidential candidate Ahmad Shafiq. This confirms the reports that talk about the growing segment of Sisi opponents within the Egyptian state institutions. This has almost become a phenomenon that penetrated into most security agencies including the intelligence services that are the most important and the most crucial.

According to the document, Sisi issued an Republican Decree ordering the retirement of 11 senior officers within the intelligence services. The decree stated that nine intelligence officers have been sent into retirement upon their own request, naming them as: Mahmoud Adel Abu Al-Futuh, Sami Saeed Al-Gurf, Ashraf Saeed Al-Khatib, Muhammad Mustafa Saudi, Khaled Saad Al-Din Al-Sadr, Nivin Amin Ismail, Mustafa Zaki Okasha, Muhammad Alaa Abd Al-Baqi, Majid Ibrahim Muhammad. Two others were ordered into retirement because of their incapacity health-wise, and they are: Ali Muhammad Khair Al-Din and Adel Ahmad Muhammad.

Former minister Yahya Hamid had earlier said that communications occurred between some of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and senior officials within Egyptian sovereign institutions discussing the post Sisi era in Egypt.

Journalist and writer Salim Azouz has commented on the decision to send the officers into retirement by saying: “It seems that what Yahya Hamid said was true”, implying that the 11 officers may have been among those who are opposed to Sisi and critical of his policies and for this reason were ordered into retirement.

Renowned Kuwaiti parliamentarian Nassir Al-Duwailah tweeted about “the detention of innocent people within the intelligence services and the army despite having nothing to do with the revolution”. Should this information be accurate, it would amount to further proof that Sisi has indeed begun the process of liquidating his foes, whether by sending them into retirement or by arresting them and fabricating charges against them.