Public prosecutors for Cairo’s downtown district resumed investigations on Monday into events following last week’s 6 April protests in the area, staged to demand constitutional reform and social justice.
Public Prosecutor Mamdouh Waheed listened to testimony given by Hany Gerges, chief of the Kasr el-Nil police station, who claimed that ten officers and soldiers had been injured by stone-throwing protesters. Gerges denied accusations that protesters were subject to unwarranted violence at the hands of police.
Kasr el-Nil Prosecutor Imam Ahmed el-Sherif said he had received information that a protest vigil was being planned in the Kasr el-Nil district. He was also informed that protest organizers were planning to disturb public order, el-Sherif added.
He went on to recount how he then headed to the site of the planned protest, accompanied by police guard, to inform demonstrators that authorities had forbidden the action for security reasons, advising them to leave the scene. But demonstrators, he said, refused to comply with the request.
El-Sherif went on to claim that protesters had distributed fliers that threatened public order and shouted insults about government officials. El-Sherif offered to help demonstrators obtain their rights legitimately in return for calling off the planned protest, he said, but the situation nevertheless deteriorated, ultimately resulting in clashes that led to the injury of several police officers.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
