Interior minister defends police to rights groups

During a meeting with rights activists Monday, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim defended the practices of the state’s security apparatus and insisted that it respects human rights given that it exercises maximum restraint in using violence.

Ibrahim's comments came less than two weeks after security forces violently cleared two protest camps of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Nasr City and Giza, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured.

Local and international human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the violent tactics used to disband the sit-ins.

The ministry is keen on challenging “all forms of violence and terrorism” that threaten the lives of citizens, Ibrahim told rights organizations during the meeting, according to state news agency MENA.

He also said national security is the main priority of security force and that Egyptians' awareness of the threat is key in supporting the police mission to "counter terrorism".

In response to the government’s crackdown on protesters, Human Rights Watch released a statement last week that read: “Egyptian security forces’ rapid and massive use of lethal force to disperse sit-ins on August 14 led to the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history."

Joe Stork, the organization’s acting Middle East and North Africa director, said in the statement: “This excessive and unjustified use of lethal force is the worst possible response to the very tense situation in Egypt today. Egypt’s military rulers should rein in police forces to prevent the country from spiraling into further violence. The military should not be encouraging police to use even more lethal force.”

A group of local human rights organizations also slammed the violent dispersal, adding that any possibility of arms possession among the protesters does not justify the level of violence used by security forces.

In a joint statement titled "Non-peaceful assembly does not justify collective punishment", nine human rights organizations said last week that such "human tragedy" could have been avoided had security forces complied with international standards on dealing with assemblies.

"Moreover, in the past weeks, the security authorities have failed to do their duty to take the necessary legal measures to protect public security and citizens, particularly residents and passersby in the aforementioned two areas, which in turn allowed weapons, ammunition, and fortifications to enter the sit-ins and led to killing, torture, and physical assaults on journalists with impunity," the statement read.