The question of whether the interior ministry deployed trained snipers to kill peaceful protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during Egypt’s recent revolution has again come to the fore with the discovery of information on the ministry’s website about sniper training programs.

In the wake of the revolution, ministry officials - including former minister Habib El-Adly - had strenuously denied accusations that snipers had been used against demonstrators. Ever since his appointment in March, Egypt’s new interior ministry, Mansour El-Eissawy, has also rejected charges that the ministry had ever trained or used snipers.

Yet the ministry’s website currently contains information on 15 training programs for police personnel, one of which, contentiously, is a “sharpshooting” program for Central Security officers of all ranks. 

Evidence presented in Cairo’s Criminal Court last month revealed unequivocally that snipers were, in fact, deployed at the height of the 18-day revolution.

Evidence included video footage showing men standing atop the ministry building in Cairo’s Lazoughli district on 29 January firing on protesters using live ammunition. Footage also showed an unarmed protester bleeding to death from a head wound. According to medical reports also presented as evidence, the protester died after sustaining two bullet wounds to the head. 

In August, retired general Refaat Abdel Hamid caused a stir when he said on national television that the ministry had a special department devoted specifically to training snipers. Abdel Hamid also claimed that ousted president Hosni Mubarak had regularly attended sniper practice sessions to assess the efficacy of the police force. 

Mubarak, along with El-Adly, currently stands accused of intentionally killing unarmed protesters during the revolution, which ultimately left over 800 dead and thousands injured.