Committee to announce report on Egypt's post-Morsi ‎violence on Wednesday

Gamal Essam El-Din , Monday 24 Nov 2014

Fact-finding committee formed to investigate violence after Mohamed Morsi's ouster promises 'politically neutral and balanced report'

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File Photo: Egyptian security forces inspect the sit-in camp set up by supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in Nasr City (Photo: AP)

Omar Marawan, spokesman and secretary-general ‎of the committee formed by Egypt's interim ‎president Adly Mansour one year ago to ‎investigate the violence after president Mohamed Morsi's ouster, said on Monday that the committee will ‎announce its final report in an international conference on ‎Wednesday.‎

Azza Mohamed, chairwoman of parliament's press ‎office, told Ahram Online that local media, ‎foreign correspondents and representatives of ‎human rights organisations are invited to attend ‎the conference, which will be held at 10am on ‎Wednesday in the Shoura Council's main chamber. ‎

‎"Foreign reporters are allowed to contact us and ‎get prior permission to attend the conference on ‎Wednesday," said Mohamed.‎

Marawan indicated that the conference comes after the committee finalised its work and ‎held its last meeting on 20 November – or just one ‎day before its mandate expired on 21 November.‎

The report includes 800 pages, with thousands of ‎documents, CDs and photos attached, Marwan said. ‎However, only 100 ‎pages will be given to media reporters during ‎the conference.‎

The committee's final ‎report will be divided into five parts, covering 11 ‎files.

"The first will comprise a preface, highlighting ‎the committee's methods in investigating and ‎researching events and its degree of neutrality," ‎said Marwan. The second, entitled "The Road to 30 ‎June," will offer a brief examination of events ‎leading to the mass protests against Morsi on 30 June, 2013 and ‎his removal from office on 3 July.‎

The most important part of the report, entitled ‎‎"Gatherings and sit-ins in public squares and roads ‎in Egypt," documents four major events: the ‎dispersal of Muslim Brotherhood's sit-ins on 14 ‎August, 2013, in which hundreds of Morsi ‎supporters were killed, along with lesser numbers of policemen.

Marawan said the report was able to reach an ‎almost exact death toll from the bloody dispersal of the above protest camps, popularly ‎known as Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins.‎

‎"The report will give a complete list of the names ‎of the victims from the dispersals and where and how ‎they were killed," said Marawan. ‎

The report, said Marwan, also covers clashes in ‎front of the Republican Guard headquarters in east ‎Cairo's Nasr City district on 8 July, five days after Morsi's ‎removal, and clashes between security forces and ‎pro-Morsi supporters on nearby Nasr Street on ‎‎26 July.‎

Part four covers attacks against Coptic Christians in Upper Egypt after the dispersals and the eruption ‎of violence in North Sinai and Suez and in Egyptian ‎prisons and universities.‎

Each part ends with a number of ‎recommendations, while the fifth part will be ‎entirely comprised of recommendations for the ‎government and civil society.

Marawan promised that the committee will announce a ‎politically neutral and balanced report. ‎

Marawan disclosed that the committee's final ‎meeting on 20 November was devoted to ‎reviewing new information provided last week by ‎foreign agencies on the events, particularly the ‎disruption of the two Brotherhood sit-ins ‎in Cairo and Giza.‎

‎"We reviewed this information and we will ‎announce whether it was found ‎valuable or not during the press conference," said ‎Marawan.‎

Brotherhood leaders refused to ‎testify before the committee, which they accused ‎of bias and being a tool to polish the image of "the ‎military coup" regime.‎

Marawan told journalists that the report tried to ‎be as neutral as possible, presenting ‎different points of view about the bloody events, ‎including testimonies and documents provided by ‎senior police and army officials and testimonies ‎delivered by Brotherhood officials to the ‎US-based Human Rights Watch and other ‎sources, particularly the Qatari-based Al Jazeera ‎satellite channel.‎

Informed sources, however, told Ahram Online ‎that the report accuses ‎Islamists, including the Brotherhood and Al-‎Gamaa Al-Islamiya, for attacking ‎Christians and churches in a number ‎of Upper Egyptian governorates. It also accuses the ‎militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis (ABM) of ‎orchestrating terrorist attacks against Egyptian ‎police and army personnel in North Sinai after the ‎dispersals. ‎

A source said the report pointed to increased ‎cooperation between jihadist groups, particularly ‎ABM and the Islamic State in Iraq ‎and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State.‎

Informed sources said the report cited Mohamed ‎El-Beltagy, a firebrand Brotherhood leader currently in jail for inciting violence against the military in ‎Sinai. El-Beltagy vowed during the sit-in that ‎‎"violence in Sinai will stop at the same second (President Abdel-Fattah) El-Sisi announces that Morsi will be ‎back in office." ‎
 

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