Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt Anti-Coup Icons Reject Government Rabaa Massacre False Report

Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt Anti-Coup Icons Reject Government Rabaa Massacre False Report

In a press conference Wednesday, Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) presented a sham report about the Rabaa square protest sit-in massacre, blaming unarmed civilian protesters and the police for the bloodshed, without any mention of the army’s role in the mass-murder atrocities during the brutal maximum-force breakup of the peaceful protest sit-in.

Khalid Mohamed, parliamentarian and public law professor, said that the report of the NCHR’s fact-finding committee is nothing but an Interior Ministry defense statement.

"This report is neither neutral nor factual. For one thing, the fact-finding committee never went out to assess the situation, and never met witnesses to take statements. It simply accepted the Interior Ministry account contradicting evidence."

Mohamed Abdul-Quddus, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Egyptian journalist and NCHR member, rejected the NCHR report, saying: "In an NCHR meeting last month, about the Rabaa report, I strongly objected to its content… many other members also did. In the end, it was agreed that NCHR would take these objections into consideration. Then, we were surprised at the report coming out without promised revisions and amendments. NCHR members’ objections were totally ignored; the final draft of the report never presented to members at all. The press conference should have been postponed to allow NCHR members to review, discuss and approve that final draft of the report.

"Last month, the report was regarded as biased towards the government. And the reason was clear: there was a severe lack of information with regard to Rabaa detainees… Rabaa witnesses refused to come in to testify because: First, the majority of NCHR members supported the overthrow of the legitimate President Mohamed Morsi; and hence Rabaa witnesses and Rabaa victims’ families do not trust them. Second, members were not sympathetic to Rabaa sit-in protesters; hence, victims’ families fear authorities would hold their testimonies against them. Thus, these witnesses never came forward to testify. Evidently, the Rabaa report is clearly flawed."

According to Mohamed Abdul-Quddus, NCHR is seen by Egyptians as biased towards the government, and the Rabaa case will be exploited in the report and used against the honorable prisoners who were arrested from the Rabaa sit-in.

Magdy Qorqor, leading member of the Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance, affirmed that the report is absurd and not factual.