Recently-appointed North Sinai Governor Abdel Wahab Mabrouk on Thursday announced that 42 detained Sinai Bedouin had been released by authorities.
“We expect that more Bedouin detained on political or criminal charges will be released in coming days,” he said.
Mabrouk told the 25 January Revolution Coalition, which groups together several youth-oriented protest movements, that authorities were also considering reducing jail sentences handed down against tribesmen in recent years by military courts.
“We apologize for the violence that was used by police in the past against unarmed civilian Bedouin,” he said.
The coalition, for its part, criticized the exclusion of its representatives from recent meetings between armed forces officials and tribal leaders.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Farid Hegazy, commander of Egypt's Second Army, said police had been redeployed in the Sinai Peninsula and would treat local Bedouin respectfully.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
