Omar El-Faramawy Cairo Administrative Court has issued a binding order for Egypt's interior ministry to restore former interior minister aide Omar El-Faramawy to the position he formerly held after he was acquitted on charges of responsibility for the killing of protesters during the 25 January 2011 uprising. El-Faramawy, a former top-level aide to Habib El-Adly, the former interior minister, and former security director of the governorate of 6th of October was retired in August 2011 when referred to trial alongside El-Adly and ousted former president Hosni Mubarak. The trial verdicts, announced 2 June, gave Mubarak and Al-Adly life sentences for their political role in the killing of protesters, but acquitted six aides who were also involved in the case, among which was El-Faramawy, for lack of sufficient incriminating evidence on the killing charge. They were also investigated for ordering the withdrawal of the police from the streets during the uprising, instigating chaos. El-Faramawy pleaded in a lawsuit appeal that during his 37-year service in the interior ministry he received no penalties, and since he was acquitted of the charges pressed against him in the Mubarak trial he should reassume his position according to interior ministry regulations that state that major generals can continue in their positions until they reach the age of retirement, which is 60 years. The verdict acquitting El-Adly's aides and the failure to prove the charges was one of the reasons that triggered thousands-strong angered protests on the day the verdict was announced. The interior minister's closest aides are believed by many revolutionaries to have taken a primary role in suppressing protests and presiding over the torture of prisoners during Mubarak's rule, as well as orchestrating the violent crackdown on anti-Mubarak protests. The interior ministry is yet to announce its stance on Saturday's court order.
