Interior Ministry arrests 13 members of ‘Damanhour Devils’ cell

Interior Ministry said that it arrested 13 members of a group calling itself the Damanhour Devils who released a video last week threatening police, the private Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Thursday.

After conducting initial investigation, National Security alleged that the arrested members belong to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

In the video, three masked men appear, one of whom reads a statement from a piece of paper threatening police forces, and promising the government and police with “more surprises in the future.”

“Our peaceful discourse will never prevent us from defending our youth and free women. For the criminal cops, you have money, sons and dignity to fear just like us. If you protected ours, we protect yours. Otherwise, blame no one but yourselves,” the masked man said.

Two weeks ago, a group of men calling themselves the Helwan Brigades also released a similar video two weeks ago with similar threats to police forces.

In the video, the group promised to kill, rape and rob, saying, “We are tired of the Brotherhood’s peaceful protests.” The men went on to say that they love Egypt and that they used to be peaceful, but were pushed into violence in response to police brutality.

“No peaceful protest with the Ministry of Interior,” the purported group members chanted toward the end of the three-minute video.

The video was initially posted by the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Rassd News Network (RNN). Mada Masr could not verify its authenticity.  Ten of the men in the video were allegedly arrested by security forces, according to Interior Ministry statements.

RNN journalist Alya Awad was also arrested by police forces last week on charges of filming the masked men appearing in the Helwan Brigades video. She is being detained for 15 days pending investigations.