Around 1000 citizens in the city of Naga Hammadi, near Qena in Upper Egypt, have staged a protest before the State Security and Investigative Services (SSIS) building. They demand that the facility be handed over for public use.
The protesters objected to transferring the building to the new National Security Agency, which has replaced the much-hated SSIS.
The SSIS was disbanded by Minister of Interior Mansour al-Essawi, who said that the new entity would assume the task of defending the country against terrorist threats without interfering in citizens’ personal lives or political activities.
In March, before the agency was disbanded, activists raided State Security offices and saved several documents from being shredded by its officers. They hoped to find evidence of the apparatus's notorious activities, and in some cases were successful.
The State Security apparatus was viewed as a tool used by former President Hosni Mubarak’s regime to persecute political activists and opponents. It faced accusations of human rights violations against its detainees.
The apparatus is also thought to have been used to purge state institutions, trade unions and universities of those seen as potentially hostile to the ruling regime.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
