The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) calls on Public Prosecutor Mohamed Shawky and Minister of Justice Adnan al-Fangary to use their powers under Articles 64 and 65 of the Criminal Procedures Law to appoint an independent judge to investigate the complaints filed by the families of the two young Egyptians, Youssef Al-Sarhani and Farag Al-Fazari, whom the Ministry of Interior said were targeted and killed by the security forces in El-Negeila town in Marsa Matrouh, in what the families of the two young men considered a premeditated murder.

On 9 April, several newspapers and news websites reported that three non-commissioned police officers were killed and two others injured during a police operation in pursuit of a wanted suspect in the town of El-Negeila in Marsa Matrouh governorate. Early media reports did not mention the subsequent arrest of more than 20 women, in what appeared to be an attempt to illegally pressure the residents of the town to hand over the suspect in the killing and wounding of the policemen, according to statements given to EIPR by a local witness. Those statements were backed by a lawyer of the two murdered young men who also spoke to EIPR, in addition to several published testimonies by residents of Al Negeila.

Arbitrary and unlawful arrest of members of the families of suspects or those presumed to have kinship ties with them or are able to influence their decisions is a common police practice in Egypt. However, the scale and magnitude of the police reaction in this case went beyond even the usual degree of this normalised practice which is completely incompatible with the basic principles of rule of law and modern state law enforcement. In the aftermath of the police reaction the incident dominated  discussion in the media for days, especially on social media which circulated the news over the past week associated with the Arabic hashtags roughly translated as  “anyone butwomen” and “Matrouh women are a red line”. Many online users condemned the killing of the three policemen, as well as the arrest of a number of women and detaining them at El-Negeila police station without charges.

The succession of events created a new crack in the relationship between police and the local residents of Matrouh. The local council of mayors and chieftains in Matrouh (the legitimate representative of tribes and families in the governorate) decided to suspend all forms of cooperation with the police in the governorate. Such escalation requires the appointment of an independent investigative judge to look into the whole series of events immediately, given the multiple accounts corroborating the violations in the police reaction, which began with the kidnapping of more than 20 innocent women and then the killing of two young men, whom intermediaries handed over to the police in order to help them find the real culprit, as reported by Zawia3 website and other outlets.

On 10 April, two dignitaries from El-Negeila  (‘Awaqel, a term used to refer to prominent community members who are in good standing with both the local residents and the security services) agreed with the head of the National Security Office in Salloum, Lieutenant Colonel Adel al-Shimy, to mediate and hand over two young men for questioning regarding the wanted person. The two men would voluntarily hand themselves over to the police, in exchange for the release of the women detained without legal justification. Indeed, the mediators handed over the two young men at 6:30 pm on the same day. A few hours later, they received a phone call from a security source telling them that the two young men were killed, according to one of the mediators, Nasrallah Gamil Al-Maabadi, who published his detailed testimony in an online video on 13 April. Maabadi said the two young men were handed over to the officer at kilometer 30 before the city of Salloum, then the detained women were released in implementation of the agreement concluded with the National Security (State Security) Agency.

The Ministry of Interior released a statement denying the detention of the women only after their actual release, according to Maabadi. At 01:17 am on 11 April, more than three days after the incidents began, an unnamed security source denied reports that "the security services of the Matrouh Security Directorate detained women following the martyrdom of members of the directorate". The ministry’s statement did not refer to any investigation of any kind or even any official action to verify the news circulated by the local residents.

Hours after the Ministry of Interior released the women, according to witnesses, and then denied that they were detained without legal justification, the ministry released a brief statement at 11:37 am on 11 April announcing that the Criminal Investigation police in Matrouh, in conjunction with the Public Security Sector, "located the hiding place of two highly dangerous criminal elements" involved in the martyrdom of three policemen in the governorate. The statement stated that the two young men were killed in clashes with the security forces. The statement raises many concerns and may aggravate the situation in Negeila, whether because of the nature of the information about the killing of the two young, or because of the narrative it tried to consolidate, or the other facts of the case it ignored altogether.

The Ministry of Interior acknowledged in its statement that it targeted Sarhani and Fazari, describing them as "highly dangerous criminal elements". The lawyer of the Sarhani and Fazari families, meanwhile, said the two young men were aged between 18 and 21, confirming that they had never been arrested, interrogated, suspected or convicted in any criminal cases. According to EIPR’s continued review of the list of wanted people on the official website of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, the ministry's available date on the database did not mention the two young men at any time until the date of the release of the ministry’s statement. More importantly, none of the ministry's statements referred to or mentioned the wanted person - presumably the main suspect in the homicide  of the three policemen, who is still presumed to be at large.

The ministry's account of the killing of the two young men contradicts the previously published press reports about a single suspect committing the killing and wounding of policemen. It also contradicts the testimonies of the families and mediators whom the ministry trusts and has worked with including on this case.

Even if we accept the ministry’s account, it does not negate the systemic problems and legal violations acknowledged by the ministry itself in its own account. Contrary to previous statements, the ministry’s statement in question included no reference or indication that the two young men initiated fire at the security forces. It only referred to an exchange of fire without details. We have the right to ask about the rules of engagement the police forces adhere to and the training and instructions they receive, and how the lack of all this affects their ability to deal with crime. Such institutionalised misuse of force led police practices to deviate completely from the principles of legality and proportionality. In addition, police response in this case does not even bring the police closer to accomplishing the main purpose of police intervention, which is to arrest the perpetrators. Even if we accept that the two murdered young men were involved in the original crime - which completely contradicts all the accounts and testimonies received from the families and intermediaries - they should have been arrested and subjected to the law and dealt with within the confines of constitutional protections, which guarantee the presumption of innocence until the defendant is proven guilty after a fair legal trial. Nevertheless, the intervention ended with the almost instant killing of two citizens whose link to the original crime was not known and is dubious at best. It is also unclear whether the purpose of apprehending those two young men was to identify the original perpetrator who is presumed to remain at large or if the investigation authorities suspected their direct involvement in the crime.

Lawyer Mamdouh Ragheb al-Derbali, the head of the legal defence team representing the families of the two slain young men, told EIPR that more than 20 women, including Sarhani’s sister and Fazari’s wife - who was pregnant at the time - spent a whole night at El-Negeila police station without any charges being brought against them. Derbali added that he submitted an official complaint to the Public Prosecution against the Ministry of Interior, specifically against the National Security officer who received the two young men, as he was the last person to communicate with them.

There are growing concerns about the proper course of investigations and fears that they will not proceed as quickly as required. According to Derbali, the prosecution began looking into the complaints filed by the families of the two young men and hearing the testimonies of the two witnesses who handed the two young men to the National Security officer only at 7 pm on 12 April, although all concerned parties were present at the prosecution’s headquarters from 10 am. Despite the lawyers' request to consider a number of pieces of evidence related to the killing of the two young men, no official body has yet announced the suspension of the Interior Ministry personnel involved until the investigation is completed - which is the bare minimum of precautionary procedures.

The details of the incident, as documented  in the testimonies of witnesses, lawyers, local mediators and community representatives in Matrouh, present us with a what appears to be a scenario of retaliatory violence and revenge, and potentially criminal behaviour amounting to cold-blooded murder carried out by law enforcement forces, which are supposed to protect and uphold the rule of law and the constitution, against two people who were not even the prime suspects in the original crime. EIPR stresses that the current, delicate moment requires a different approach and a prompt response from all concerned authorities, including the Public Prosecution and the ministries of Interior and Justice, specifically the need for thorough investigations. EIPR also calls on the National Council for Human Rights to investigate and follow up on the incident, with the aim of establishing the full facts, bringing the violators to account, ensuring that the law is upheld and strengthening the principles of sovereignty of law on which the modern Egyptian state is based. The appointment of an independent judge to investigate this incident may help restore and maintain stability and societal peace in El-Negeila. Terse official statements that contain nothing but outright denial and brief announcements by the Ministry of Interior will not be enough to calm the tensions in the town, especially after the local council of mayors and chieftains in Matrouh decided on 12 April to suspend all forms of cooperation with the police in the governorate. We remind everyone concerned that Governor of Matrouh Major General Khaled Shuaib had earlier emphasised the importance of the council and its active role in maintaining stability and communication between the people of Matrouh and the executive authorities in the governorate.