Matrouh tribal council demands investigation after 2 young men killed in security campaign

Tribal leaders in Matrouh are demanding an investigation into the killing of two young men in the coastal western governorate on Friday, the culmination of a raid authorities began earlier in the week and which escalated over the ensuing days.

Matrouh’s Council of Mayors and Sheikhs announced on Saturday that it would no longer cooperate with the police in Matrouh until the investigation was complete, appealing as well to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to intervene.

The council stated that it would cease all forms of cooperation with the governorate’s police authorities — particularly police stations.

The council said it gathered after two young men, Youssef Eid al-Sarhani and Farag Rayyash al-Fazari, were killed by police on Friday.

The Interior Ministry claimed on Friday that the two men were killed during an exchange of gunfire, describing them as “highly dangerous criminal elements” involved in the killing of three police officers earlier in the week.

Events in the governorate started escalating on Wednesday, according to domestic news outlets, when an exchange of fire broke out in the city of Negila, where police authorities were conducting a raid to apprehend an individual. The exchange of fire killed three policemen and injured two others.

In the aftermath, security forces launched a security campaign in the area surrounding the suspect’s home and arbitrarily detained men and women, according to the Matroush branch of the Lawyers Syndicate, which issued a statement on Thursday that Mada Masr reviewed.

The syndicate described the arrests as unlawful and warned that such practices “risk destabilizing the governorate’s social peace.”

The council, meanwhile, described the arrests as hostage-taking, condemning police for taking women as “hostages” in any dispute and denouncing the practice as entirely foreign to local custom and tradition.

The council also rejected the Interior Ministry's account of Sarhani and Fazari's killing, stating that the two men had voluntarily turned themselves in in exchange for the release of several women in police custody. Despite earlier assurances given to their families regarding their safety and the women’s subsequent release, the young men were killed shortly after surrendering.

The council's statement followed a meeting earlier that day that brought together all tribal chiefs, elders and other prominent figures from across the governorate.

The Interior Ministry denied on Friday that any women had been detained in connection to the earlier police killings and said legal measures would be taken against those spreading what it described as false rumors aimed at stirring public unrest.