CAIRO: The Coalition of Police Officers demanded the replacement of the interior minister's assistants who were appointed during the reign of ex-minister Habib Al-Adly, accusing them of being a “setback”. The coalition held an open meeting with police officers Friday at the police club in Nasr City and announced that they support Minister Mansour Al-Essawy. They demanded the establishment of a police association through direct elections and under judicial supervision. “Some of the current minister's assistants participated in forging elections in the past. Their personal fortunes were inflated illegally. The previous minister kept away honorable policemen and chose and sponsored corrupt elements who were involved in killing protestors during the revolution,” said Ahmed Mashaly, spokesman of the coalition. “We also want the Police Authority law amended to provide protection to officers while on duty and enhance our working conditions and salary schemes,” he added. The coalition is set to meet with Al-Essawy this week to convey their demands. Legally, Al-Essawy has no authority to discharge his assistants who are appointed by a presidential decree. However, the coalition said that they can either be employed in peripheral roles or discharged by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The coalition said in a statement that since the group was formed one month after the revolution, they have opened a new page with their leaderships but were ignored and attempts to meet with Al-Essawy “failed deliberately”. “We held this meeting to mobilize officers for our demands after we found that the leaderships at the ministry are stalling,” said Walid Hamdy, member of the coalition. “We are organizing a campaign against corruption in the ministry and against officials at the ministry who are ineffective in supporting our demands,” he added. Officers said that their presence on the streets is ineffective since they have no specific orders on how to deal with emergency situations, don't have legal protection in dealing with thugs and can be imprisoned if they shoot them. They also demanded an official funeral for police officers who died during the revolution, calling for an investigation into the kidnapping of three officers in Rafah two months ago. “We have received threats of interrogation or discharge if we continue talking to the media. We are prepared to stop if we get a response from the ministry,” Mashaly said. He said public opinion started to be more sympathetic with police officers and to differentiate between those who died during protests and others when police stations were attacked by civilians.
