Egypt's Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had dispersed a protest by residents of Desouk, in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate, outside the local police station, after demonstrators accused police of failing to arrest everyone involved in the murder of a local young man.
The ministry said in a statement that “security forces dispersed the gathering without any repercussions.” But a video filmed by one of the protesters and circulated online shows plainclothes police officers detaining a young man holding a sign bearing the murder victim’s photograph, and shows security personnel beating him.
The ministry described the protest as “a gathering of the victim’s relatives and friends,” saying it was driven by demands to arrest the brother of the man already charged, whom demonstrators believed was also involved in the killing.
The ministry said, however, that the victim’s father had accused only one person in the case. According to its account, the incident dates back to 11 July, when police received a report from a hospital in the Desouk police district that the victim had died of his injuries. The father accused a laborer with a criminal record of killing his son following an earlier financial dispute, the ministry said, and did not accuse the suspect’s brother or anyone else of involvement in the assault.
The ministry said the suspect was arrested at the time and referred to the Public Prosecution, which ordered him held pending investigation. He remains in custody.
Police did arrest the main suspect’s brother, but security officials and a lawyer representing the victim’s family gave conflicting accounts of when.
Captain Tarek El-Omda, deputy chief of investigations at Desouk police station, told Al Manassa that police had arrested the second suspect before the protest began, but said the arrest was only announced afterwards for procedural reasons. El-Omda said the protest was driven by the emotional state of the victim's family and friends, and that it ended without any police reports being filed or action taken against the protesters.
Roshdy El-Sorady, a volunteer lawyer representing the victim's family, gave a different account. He told Al Manassa that the second suspect was arrested a day after the protest, and that the family had demanded his arrest after he posted videos threatening and insulting them following the killing.
