Heshmat: Murder of Young Brother Result of Incitement by Parties Adopting Violent Approach

Fifteen-year old Islam Masoud, a young member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was killed by hired thugs who broke into the Brotherhood headquarters in Sa’ah Square, Damanhur (north of the capital Cairo). The perpetrators had been repeatedly trying to storm the offices for two days in a row amid a complete and strange absence of the national security services.

Dr. Gamal Heshmat, member of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)’s National Committee, affirmed that what happened to Islam Masoud was the result of incitement by certain parties that will bear the responsibility for the violence and the siege those parties’ supporters lay around the Brotherhood’s headquarters. He added that such parties consider murder and violence against the Muslim Brotherhood acceptable ‘democratic’ means of beating them.

Dr. Heshmat further condemned the security services’ failure to arrest the thugs, pointing that he and other FJP leaders contacted the security services and asked them to intervene because there were large numbers of thugs gathering outside the Brotherhood headquarters in Damanhur, but they arrived too late.

“Muslim Brotherhood youths are now being beaten and attacked with Molotov bombs and stones. Such violence led to the the death of our Martyr Islam Masoud. The resounding silence from the Interior Ministry clearly indicates collaboration or a conspiracy. Because there is simply no response at all from the Ministry. That is truly baffling, very strange, indeed.”

Heshmat pointed that, “The Muslim Brothers are victims of repeated acts of humiliation, violence and even murder. The responsibility for the killing of Islam Masoud lies with the Interior Ministry and the public prosecution service, which on Saturday released a number of thugs without knowing who had hired them.

“I call on the Interior Ministry to beat with an iron fist on the hands of all thugs committing acts of violence, who caused and are causing injury, death and chaos, everywhere across the country. Those acts certainly have nothing to do with peaceful protests, nor freedom of expression for that matter; and those are certainly criminal thugs not revolutionaries as claimed by some dubious media.”