The Egypt Revolution Youth Coalition and a number of pro-democracy political parties are in the process of issuing a joint statement in which 7 basic demands – up from the initial four – are set down.

The draft of the statement, which Ahram Online was able to view, warns that the sit-ins are only the first step, and that escalating protest action would be undertaken if the ruling Military Council continued to turn its back at the revolution’s demands.

The demands are as follows:

1) the immediate release of all civilians who have been sentenced by military court and their retrial before civilian courts. Military trials for civilians are to be totally banned.

2) A special court should be established to try those implicated in the killing of protesters and all implicated police officers are to be suspended immediately.

3) The sacking of the current minister of the interior and his replacement by a political civilian appointee, to be followed by declaration of a plan and time table for the full restructuring of the Ministry of the Interior, placing it under judicial oversight.

4) The sacking of the current Prosecutor General and the appointment of a well respected figure in his place.

5) Putting Mubarak and the members of his clique on trial for the political crimes they committed against Egypt and its people.

6) Revoking the current budget and the drawing up of a new draft budget that courageously acts to respond to the basic demands of the nation’s poor, and putting that draft budget to public debate before its adoption.

7) Clear and open delineation of the prerogatives of the Supreme Military Council in ways that do not infringe on the powers and prerogatives of the cabinet of ministers. The Prime Ministers should have full powers to appoint his aides and the members of his cabinet, once that cabinet is purged of the remnants of the old regime.  

Signatories to the joint statement include todate the Revolution Youth Coalition, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Front Party, Youth for Justice and Freedom, the Popular Socialist Alliance Party and the Awareness Party. Contacts are ongoing to widen the circle of signatories.