has described his ministry’s reshuffle as “the biggest” in its history. The reshuffle covers 4,000 police officers according to the minister who stated that the ministry ended the service of 505 major-generals and brigadier-generals and 82 colonels. These include 18 major-generals and 9 brigadier-generals accused of killing protesters.
This minister of interior announced the reshuffle today in a press conference after meeting with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf earlier this morning.
El-Eissawi revealed that 18 police officers accused of killing protesters during the first days of the January 25 uprising were purged from the force. Another 54 police officers accused of killing protesters were reassigned duties that do not require interaction with the public.
During the press conference, El-Eissawi denied rumors that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak had escaped from Tora prison.
He also defended the role of the police in the revolution, claiming that the ministry does not have snipers and that as policemen were already absent from the streets from 28 January they could not have been involved in the shooting of protesters from that date.
The Ministry of Interior is accused of placing snipers on roof tops around Tahrir Square during the uprising to shoot protesters. The ministry denies the allegations.

I will not waste time in responding to the absurd lies of General Essawi re the MOI not having snipers, as Zeinobia has a well written, detailed blog post about the subject that refutes completely such claims.

But let’s go back to the reshuffle move by the MOI. Essawi basically referred to retirement generals who were already about to reach their retirement age in all cases. And most of those officers “forced to retire” will neither be tried nor investigated, which I find completely unacceptable, since the MOI under Mubarak has been the biggest criminal syndicate in this country and those generals are its leaders. Where is justice? Where is the transparency? Why don’t those generals be investigated automatically by the prosecutors publicly to find out about the roles they performed at the ministry. And who are those officers forced to retire? We don’t have all the names.

And more troubling, looking at the list of the senior officers who were kept in the service, I found some familiar names from the Piggipedia:

For example, Khaled Gharaba, the Mahalla torturer, is to head Alexandria’s Security Directorate.

From Piggipedia

General Muhammad Refaat Qomsan has been re-appointed as the Interior Minister’s First Assistant for Administrative Affairs.

From SS Officers

SS General Tarek el-Rakaybi is to replace General Hisham Abu Gheida as the Interior Minister’s First Assistant for Guards and Security Division.

From SS Officers

So what happened to Abu Gheida? I have no idea.

More ludicrously, the Alexandria police murderers including Wael el-Komy, who are undergoing trial for the murder of protesters, have been moved to better paying jobs in other police departments.

This musical chairs game isn’t going to fool the Egyptian people. Protests and sit ins continue and we are expecting a mass turn out in Tahrir today.

As the Tahrir occupation continues, PM Essam Sharaf made a public speech on Saturday evening, whereby he

…ordered the suspension of police accused of killing protesters during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
Essam Sharaf also said a panel would be created to speed up court cases against them and those accused of corruption.

Earlier in the day, the prosecutor general ordered the re-arrest of head of Suez police and two secret policemen, while in Alexandria the prosecutor ordered the arrest and interrogation of 12 police officers involved in the torture and killing of Sayed Bilal, the salafi young man who was wrongly accused by the State Security Police in January of blowing up the Two Saints Church in Alexandria.

But as always, the government’s “concessions” are vague and meaningless. No names of officers were announced, no transparency, no public trials, no mention of Suzan or Omar Suleiman, and nothing said re the national minimum wage. And of course nothing re halting the military tribunals. Nothing concrete at all. And while promising one of the biggest “restructuring moves” in the history of the interior ministry by mid July, Sharaf’s interior minister, General Mansour el-Essawi, went on Al-Hayat channel, describing the use of the word “purge” as a “silly”.

[Video removed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvDEkWytVs]

Sharaf’s speech doesn’t assure anyone. The protests continue as of time of writing, and in Tahrir Square already thousands are marching demanding Sharaf’s immediate resignation.

[Video removed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1scFulTW5o]

While in Suez, tens of thousands of the city residents are now threatening to block the Suez Canal, and sit-ins continues in other provinces.

Al-Masry Al-Youm neither specified which agencies and directorates those brigadiers were transferred to nor did it release the names of the officers in the report, which also said that 23 SS generals had their service terminated.

Earlier Shrouk had quoted a “senior security source” saying a “big number of State Security Police officers” will be part of the newly formed National Security Agency.

From SS Officers

Already among the infamous SS names we know are part of the new interior ministry leadership is General Mortada Ibrahim, who should be thrown in jail for leading the division in charge of surveillance, phone bugging and wiretapping, but instead he’s been rewarded the post of the Interior Minister’s Assistant for Research and Planning.

From SS Officers

And moreover, it seems General Hisham Abdel Fattah Abu Gheida, will not face trial for his involvement in torture and corruption. The general has been awarded a new post as the Interior Minister’s Assistant for Guards and Security Division.

And the musical chairs game continues.

So much for reforming the police.