The softer side of the Interior Ministry?
Following reports this week about a shakeup in the Interior Ministry that more than 100 mid-level police officials be reassigned, as will 11 assistant and deputy ministers, the ministry announced the formation of committees to evaluate policemen on ethics, behavior and psychological condition. The decree, published yesterday on the Official Gazette, comes two weeks after Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar announced that the ministry will form its own human rights committee. These new policies, which followed a year with a string of police shootings of unarmed civilians, appear to be part of a reform of the police force promised by the government and which were supposed to have been enacted in the amendments to the Police Act. The legislation has been dormant since last year. This comes as The Associated Press reports that more than 80 people were arrested in Central Cairo on Wednesday on the anniversary of the Port Said soccer riots in 2012, to prevent unsanctioned protests.