Movement against death penalty claims ‘war on interior ministry’

The Death Penalty Movement (Ei'dam) claimed responsibility on Sunday for the burning of police cars in a number of governorates across Egypt.

The movement broadcast a video showing several police cars being burned, including a car belonging to the head of the Central Security Forces in Beheira, privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

The video, titled “war against the interior ministry and its leaders,” showed a number of masked young men setting cars on fire and chanting jihadist songs similar to those of Ansar Beit al-Maqdes, a Sinai-based terrorist group responsible for several attacks on military and police facilities and personnel.

The group's spokesperson, Aly Harb, said that burning the car of the head of the CSF in Beheira marks the beginning of an operation targeting security directors in Egypt.

The group also claimed responsibility for setting a police car ablaze in Minya that belonged to a junior ranking police officer in the National Central Security unit, adding the Minya will witness what he referred to as “an armed revolution” by the families of those recently sentenced to death.

Last week, Minya Criminal Court sentenced 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death for violence following the dispersal of the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins last August.