Members of the Union of Revolutionary Youth in Qena along with other residents of the governorate demonstrated Wednesday evening in Sa’a Square to demand the dismissal of Governor Adel Labib and protest Morsy’s decision to keep him in his post.
Protesters held banners bearing Labib’s picture and the words “dictator” and “state security man.” They chanted, “Down with Adel Labib,” “Down with state security,” and “Khaled Saeed was killed, and Labib is to blame.” Saeed was killed in Alexandria on 6 June 2010 after being beaten by two policemen during Labib’s term as the governor of Alexandria. His death was one of the factors that fueled the revolution in Egypt.
Protesters said that “most of the political forces are against Labib staying in his post” as governor of Qena. They accused Labib of having close ties to the former regime.
Qena residents protested in April 2011, staging a sit-in in front of the governor's building and blocking the railway for 10 days, to demand the replacement of newly-appointed Christian governor Emad Mikhail.
The demonstrators said they did not protest his religion, but criticized him for his links to the toppled regime.
The protests ended when Mikhail’s term as governor was suspended for 3 months. Eventually Labib was appointed to the post.
Labib served as the Qena governor during the rule of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from 1999 to 2006 before he was brought back to the post in August 2011.
Mostafa al-Gales, a member of the Union of Revolutionary Youth in Qena told state-run news agency MENA in August 2011, “We are against the return of Adel Labib as the governor of Qena for being one of the men of the dissolved State Security Investigations Service and the dissolved National Democratic Party, and he is known for his hostility to the revolution and responsibility for the death of Sayed Bilal, the martyr of Alexandria, when he was its governor.”
Labib served as the governor of Alexandria from 2006 until 2011 and resigned shortly after the 18-day revolution.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
