Egyptian President Field Marshall Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's security forces have killed 17 pro-Muslim Brotherhood persons in the latest incident of extra-judicial killing.
The security forces claimed that the people killed were involved in a car bomb near the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that killed more than 20 people in Cairo on August 4.
However, how the way the 17 persons were killed raised questions about the quick security-forces operation.
Al-Monitor reported that four days after the Cairo bombing, on August 8, Interior Ministry issued a statement saying it had killed 17 suspects from the Hasm movement, which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to the Interior Ministry, security forces first conducted a raid in the Fayoum governorate, about 90 kilometers from Cairo, on hideouts used by fugitives from other terrorist cases whom the Interior Ministry had linked to the NCI incident. Clashes broke out during the raid, killing eight suspects.
Security forces then killed seven accused terrorists in a raid on a second group of suspects in Shorouk city, about 20 kilometers from the capital.
During the raid, two other suspects were killed when one attempted to hide in the house of another suspect to avoid arrest in Helwan city, south of Cairo.
An informed security source told Al-Monitor that after the explosion, the Ministry of Interior "started the criminal investigation process until it reached the identity of one of the suspects."
The source said, "The suspect was then arrested from his home in the suburbs of Cairo and gave away the names of those involved in the NCI bombing."
Abdul Ghaffar Salehin, a Brotherhood leader who fled to Turkey in 2015, told Al-Monitor over the phone that the Ministry of Interior eliminated the 17 suspects via extrajudicial killing.
He said it is unreasonable for 17 people to die in confrontations with security services without any police officer getting a scratch, especially since both sides usually suffer losses as a result of exchanging fire.
Salehin added, "This is not the first time the Ministry of Interior has eliminated suspects whose innocence could be proven after investigation. The same happened with the killing of Brotherhood lawyer Nasser al-Houfi, whose house was raided. He was killed along with Brotherhood leaders without even resisting.
Houfi and nine other Brotherhood leaders were killed inside his home in 6th of October City in July 2015, while the Interior Ministry said the killing was the result of an exchange of fire between security forces and Brotherhood members. But the Muslim Brotherhood denied any clashes.
"It makes no sense to identify all suspects and locate them in less than two days, and still, the security services killed them in cold blood," Salehin said.
465 eliminated in extra-judicial killing
At least 465 men killed in what the Egyptian Interior Ministry said were shootouts with its forces over a period of three and a half years, a Reuters analysis of Interior Ministry statements has found in April this year.
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