The Egyptian Social Democratic Party (ESDP) criticised security forces on Tuesday for their actions during clashes that took place at the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Moqattam. The party also called for the formation of a popular campaign to dismiss the interior minister and restructure the ministry. The party issued a statement criticising the attacks on protesters and journalists in Moqattam, perceiving the Muslim Brotherhood as an “illegal group". The statement claimed that security forces left protesters and journalists to be attacked by “the Brotherhood militias", according to the statement. The statement added that security forces also charged and arrested protesters and journalists, instead of protecting them and arresting those who attacked them. “Security forces attacked and arrested peaceful protesters and journalists, instead of arresting the Brotherhood militias who attacked them, and whose names are known to security forces." The party called for forming a popular campaign to demand the dismissal of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and restructuring the Ministry of Interior. Farid Zahran, deputy head of ESDP, said there are already popular demands to dismiss Ibrahim and restructure the ministry. He explained that several civil and Islamist parties are adopting these calls, in addition to a large number of police officers that held strikes demanding Ibrahim to resign or President Mohamed Morsi to dismiss him. “The calls are coming from parties, people, and even from inside the ministry." Zahran explained that ESDP is trying to coordinate between different actors calling for the dismissal of Ibrahim, in order to unite their efforts. He added that dismissing Ibrahim would not be enough, as the Interior MInistry needs to be entirely restructured. The ESDP deputy head added that Ehab El-Kharat, member of ESDP and representative in the Shura Council, submitted a law proposal to restructure the ministry to the upper house of parliament. The party statement mentioned that the significant rise in violence across Egypt reached a level where citizens are killing suspected criminals without referring to judicial and security authorities. “This either denotes the absence of security and state authority or the people's mistrust of their ability to achieve justice and maintain security," the statement read. The statement asserted that restoring security in Egypt will not be attained by increasing the armament of security forces but by restructuring the Interior Ministry in a way that turns it into a neutral and efficient body that would then be respected by people. “You should realise that security forces would fail to protect the current regime through oppression just like it failed to do with the former regime." the statement added. The statement concluded by calling for acquitting all the detained protesters and journalists and called on the prosecutor general to take legal actions against the Muslim Brotherhood, which refuses to legalise its status until now, according to the statement.
