One killed, 13 arrested in Friday protests across Egypt

Adham Youssef
3 Min Read

One person was killed in Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate, and 13 were arrested in Matariyah district in Cairo, while participating in anti-government protests on Friday.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, said that the person killed in Kafr Al-Sheikh, named Abdu Sharaby, was shot during clashes between security forces and protesters.

The Ministry of Health confirmed the death, and announced that three others suffered injuries during the clashes.

In Matariyah, a working class district in North Cairo, 13 protesters were arrested on charges of “organising protests and possession of weapons”. The area is known for being a stronghold for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

Demonstrators in the area gathered following Friday prayers to protest the mass death sentences on members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They were also protesting the acquittal of former President Hosni Mubarak from charges of killing scores of protesters in the 25 January revolution, the FJP reported.

Other protests took place in Maadi, New Cairo, Ain Shams, Helwan and the governorate of Al-Sharqeya.

The Anti-Coup Alliance (ACA), a group of Islamist parties formed in support of former President Mohamed Morsi, mourned the dead on Friday and promised more protests.

“The Egyptian people will continue in their path to break the coup, disregarding the amount of causalities,” the alliance said in a Friday statement.

Fridays have typically witnessed pro-Morsi marches since the military takeover on 3 July 2013. Recently the intensity of the protests has been decreasing, as the police and the armed forces deployed heavy forces on the streets since the start of the year.

Matariyah neighbourhood became a flashpoint for violent confrontations between Islamist groups and security forces ever since the ouster of Morsi last year.
On 29 November, the district witnessed protests engineered by the Salafi Front, a political Islamist organisation, leaving one person killed and other injured.

Last January, Matariyah saw the worst violence during the third 25 January Revolution anniversary, as pro-Morsi protesters confronted local residents and riot police. Wiki Thawra, an independent database dedicated to the Egyptian revolution, listed 30 dead and 70 injured in the mentioned incident.

During the events of the 25 January Revolution, the neighbourhood witnessed large anti-government demonstrations and confrontations with the security forces. According to a report by Amnesty International issued in May 2011, angry protesters burned about 20 cars belonging to the riot police and cashed security forces in the streets, and two police stations in the area were completely looted and set on fire.

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