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Popular anger at Egypt security services growing

July 19, 2023 at 12:01 pm

An Egyptian protester is arrested by Egyptian riot police after taking part in a protest in Cairo, Egypt on 8 January 2014 [Ed Giles/Getty Images]

The state of popular tension in Egypt between civilians and the police is increasing as a result of the violent and illegal security actions that amount to extrajudicial killings and arrests without parliamentary permission.

Since the 2013 military coup, the security authorities have committed many massacres, including in the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda squares. Some were committed in the Sinai Peninsula.

On 11 July, a police officer in the city of Sidi Barani, in Matrouh, northwest of the country, shot Farhat Al-Mahfouzy three times, killing him in front of his family and friends, prompting activists to circulate details of several recent incidents in which security forces have assaulted and insulted civilians.

A resident of Matrouh also published a clip revealing the security and army leaders threatening the people of Matrouh, saying they would turn the city into another Sinai, referring to their displacement from their homes, imprisonment and intimidation, as happened in North Sinai.

READ: Egypt sentences rights researcher Patrick Zaki to 3 years in jail – rights group