Egyptian Parliament Speaker Saad al-Katatny on Tuesday asked the Committee on Defense and National Security to investigate the arrest of a National Security Agency officer who urged workers from the Petrojet Company demonstrating in front of the Parliament building to break into it, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported Tuesday.
The demonstrating workers caught a young man in civilian clothes, who claimed he was a police officer, inciting the assault, the independent daily reported. The workers took the officer to Qasr al-Nil department to be questioned.
The committee will take the testimonies of five witnesses.
Katatny also demanded clarification from the Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim regarding the officer, according to the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram. Katatny said that the officer is a first lieutenant at the National Security Agency.
“Tampering with the dignity of the council is a serious felony,” Katatny said.
According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, certain MPs accused the national security service of leading a counter-revolution.
MP Mohamed al-Beltagy said the officer is the son of a leading Interior Ministry official. MP Sayed Gadallah requested the dismissal of the chief security officer of the Parliament for failing to protect it.
“We are unable to get in because of the crowds before the building,” he said.
MENA, the state-run wire service, said that the interior minister told Parliament on Tuesday that he ordered the search and monitoring department of the ministry to investigate the claims of members of Parliament.
Ibrahim said that General Salah Hegazy, the officer’s superior, instructed him “to secure the streets leading to the Interior Ministry near Parliament and noticed the crowds around Parliament.”
“Protestors doubted his presence and beat him, causing injuries according to a medical report by the officer who filed a report to the Qasr al-Nil police department,” Ibrahim added.
Egypt’s interim government disbanded the State Security Investigation Service (SSIS) in March 2011 and replaced it with the National Security Agency. Many critics, however, believe that reform of the agency was more cosmetic than substantive.
The SSIS, which was Egypt’s much-feared and hated security agency, was used by the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak to suppress political activism. The agency was accused of torturing political detainees.
