Interior Minister appoints new head of National Security in ministry reshuffle

Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar appointed a new chief for the National Security Agency on Saturday as part of a reshuffle that has affected several leading positions within the ministry.

The new head of the National Security Agency (formerly known as State Security Investigation Services) is Mohamed Shaarawy, who previously occupied the agency’s post of deputy chief of the department of extremist activity.

According to a detailed report published by the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA), this reshuffle is attributed to the fact that five of its department chiefs had reached the age of retirement: 60 years.

The ministry’s top media spokesperson, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Abu Bakr, told MENA on Sunday that this latest reshuffle came about due to the need to fill vacant positions in the upper echelons of the ministry’s various departments.

Abu Bakr claimed that these five outgoing department chiefs had “performed their duties to the fullest extent,” and that younger officers will be promoted to fill their positions.

The departing head of the National Security Agency, Salah Hegazy, has been appointed to replace the ministry’s economic security division – Brigadier General Osama al-Soghayar, who is due to retire over the next few days.

Both of Hegazy’s deputies have, reportedly, also been promoted: Mahmoud al-Gemeily was appointed head of Alexandria Security Directorate and Hisham Bastawi was appointed head of the port security authority, which handles Egypt’s entry points. 

The reshuffle includes over 20 other leading officials who are being redistributed to different departments. It also comes at a worrying time for the ministry, ahead of the anniversary of the 2011 revolution.

Violations of detainees’ rights have come under the spotlight recently after numerous incidents of torture, abuse, and deaths in police custody have been reported across Egypt.