Minister of Defence Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has denied the military knew state security officers were destroying documents in early 2011, his lawyer, Mohamed Maqboul, has told Ahram Online.

The state security apparatus did not notify military intelligence that the documents were in danger, El-Sisi said during his evidence at the trial of police officials accused of destroying the documents.

State security is an independent apparatus, El-Sisi added. The army does not know the contents of its documents.

The army was guarding the state security buildings from the outside and did not inspect what was happening inside, El-Sisi said. The only information military intelligence received about the issue was from social media sites.

The court will hear from the defence on Wednesday.   

Hassan Abdel-Rahman, former head of the now-disbanded State Security Apparatus, is accused of ordering the destruction of state security documents in the aftermath of the January 25 Revolution. Forty police officials are accused of destroying the documents.

The armed forces seized control of state security buildings across the country in early March 2011 after revolutionaries stormed the state security headquarters in Cairo and Alexandria to uncover evidence of atrocities committed by the repressive apparatus.