Rights groups: Interior minister must step down

A group of Egyptian human rights organizations issued a joint statement on Monday demanding the interior minister’s resignation in the aftermath of deadly confrontations that left at least 80 pro-Morsi protesters and one police officer dead over the weekend.

“The political circumstances of the massacre are well known, but the common denominator between it and similar incidents is the lack of real accountability for the perpetrators of past killings, assassinations and torture,” the statement said.

“The current interior minister is the same minister who was appointed under the Brotherhood’s tenure, and who was responsible for the massacres in Port Said and Suez in January that left 50 people dead. Instead of being held accountable and prosecuted for this crime, he and his men were praised the following day in an official speech by deposed MB President Mohamed Morsi,” the group argued.

The group accused the Ministry of Interior of failing to comply with basic standards for responding to protests.

The statement also demanded that Brotherhood members refrain from using violence, and condemned all forms of incitement that the group accused certain Brotherhood leaders of propagating.

“Members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who reject political violence and incitement to religious and sectarian hatred must take action to persuade their colleagues and leaders to renounce these methods, and to turn over those who engage in violence or carry weapons during political activities to the proper law enforcement bodies,” the statement added.

The organizations also called for help in their mission to document these human rights violations.