Thousands have started flocking to Tahrir since the morning, as anti-government protests continue in Cairo, Suez and elsewhere.

In Alexandria, mass protests are taking place now in front of the Security Directorate, denouncing the interior ministry, calling for the prosecution of police torturers and demanding impeaching Khaled Gharraba and minister Mansour el-Essawi. Striking workers from several companies have joined the protests.

The protesters in Alexandria have taken down the interior ministry’s flag from the poll in front of the Security Directorate.

Oh, and the call for a million-man protest in Heliopolis to denounce Tahrir and express support to SCAF managed to draw roughly 14 protesters! :)

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.

General Khaled Gharraba, the former head of Criminal Investigations Division at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate, whose men oversaw the mass detentions and torture of protesters during the Mahalla April 2008, was rewarded a promotion in 2010, by General Habib el-Adly, becoming the security director of Alexandria’s eastern sector.

General Gharraba is now the police chief of Alexandria, and you can see him in the video below, promising the Alexandrian citizens last Friday a “new age where the citizens come first”:

Yeah, right! People like you should be in prison for the torture and the fabrication of charges against the poor people of Mahalla!

We cannot keep this musical chairs game going on for long. Not only do we need to dissolve the State Security Police and Central Security Forces, but also we have to put all those interior ministry officials who were involved in torture and repression on trial. They have to face justice.

Police Lt. Colonel Muhammad Fathi was the first witness. Fathi headed Mahalla’s State Security branch during the April Uprising, and now is directing the Criminal Investigations Division at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station.

… His answers were limited to: “I can’t remember. All information I have is already in the police report and the prosecution’s documents.”

General Khaled Gharraba, of the Criminal Investigations Division at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate, was no different.

His interrogation took few minutes, and his answers were similar to his colleague…

… and to his other colleague, Brigadier General Sami Lutfi el-Sayyed, who headed in April the Gharbeia Province General Security branch, and now directs the Damietta branch…

Then it was Brigadier General Reda Tabliya of the Criminal Investigations at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate…

… followed by Colonel Ayman Radi Khamees, who heads the Criminal Investigations in Mahalla, and who for sure gave me the creeps. As soon as his name was shouted by the Judge, murmurs in the prisoners’ cage turned crescendo-style into shouts by the Mahalla detainees: “Ya zalem! Ya zalem! (You tyrant! You tyrant!)… May God avenge us, ya kafer (you, infidel)!” According to the prisoners, Colonel Khamees was one of the officers who personally oversaw the raids and torture of Mahalla suspects…

On Sunday, the following police officers gave their testimonies during the trial session that lasted from 12 noon to 4pm:
Lt. Colonel Amr el-Hindi (Criminal Investigations Division), Lt. Colonel Nabil Abdel Sabour (Criminal Investigations Division), Officer Muhammad Ali Saleh (Criminal Investigations Division), Lt. Colonel Hussein Fattouh Ghoneim (Criminal Investigations Division), Captain Amr Abdel Moneim Mustafa el-Harouni (Mahalla’s Counternarcotics Division), Captain Hossam Eddin Muhammad Ghareeb (Criminal Investigations Officer at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station), Captain Haitham el-Shami (Criminal Investigations Officer at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station), Major Khaled Ammar, (Mahalla Criminal Investigations Division Chief), Major Yasser Abdel Hamid Abdallah el-Sayyed (Criminal Investigations Division Chief at Mahalla’s 1st Police Station), First Lt. Wassim Farrag Shalaby (Mahalla’s 1st Police Station Criminal Investigations Division), Captain Saleh Kohiya (Criminal Investigations Division at Markaz el-Mahalla).

The State Security Prosecutor demanded the “harshest sentences” for the 49 defendants.

Lt. Colonel Muhammad Fathi, who headed Mahalla’s State Security branch during the April events, and now is directing the Criminal Investigations Division at Mahalla’s 2nd Police Station.

General Khaled Gharraba, of the Criminal Investigations Division at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate.

Brigadier General Sami Lutfi el-Sayyed, who headed in April the Gharbeia Province General Security branch, and now directs the Damietta branch.

Brigadier General Reda Tabliya, of the Criminal Investigations (el-Mabaheth el-Gena’eya) at the Gharbeia Province Security Directorate.

Colonel Ayman Radi Khamees, who heads the Criminal Investigations in Mahalla.

A Police Colonel, deployed in the court room with dozens of soldiers, plainclothes armed informers and firefighters.

A Police Brigadier General inside the courtroom.

Plainclothes police thugs cordoning protesters inside the Tanta court building.