New crime patterns emerged due to COVID pandemic: Secretary of Council of Arab Interior Ministers

CAIRO – 18 August 2021: New patterns of crime have emerged as a result of the repercussions of COVID-19, atop of them cybercrimes, according to Dr. Muhammad bin Ali Koman, Secretary-General of the Council of Arab Interior Ministers.

The remarks were said during the 18th Arab Conference of Chiefs of Investigation and Forensic Evidence held Wednesday via the television circuit, in the presence of Major General Dr. Iyad Abdel Hamza Bayawi, head of the conference, and heads and members of Arab delegations.

“The noticeable increase in cybercrime due to the increasing demand on the Internet, social networking sites, distance work and study and digital commerce, not to mention fraud crimes, especially in medical and disinfection materials,” Koman explained.

The meeting is the first to be held since the pandemic spread.

The session began with a speech by Dr. Muhammad bin Ali Koman, who said: “the repercussions of this epidemic on the security level were represented in several aspects, including the heavy human tax paid by the security and civil protection men in order to perform their noble mission and their support to the medical staff in order to save lives, and maintain quarantine and social distancing procedures.”

“There is no doubt that the criminal health challenges associated with this pandemic bring to mind other health crimes that we fear that the current conditions today are favorable for their spread, including crimes of trafficking in human organs, where organized crime gangs continue to perpetrate in complete disregard of all religious teachings, humanitarian principles and moral values,” he added.