Interior: human right officers’ role at police stations to be activate

CAIRO – 25 June 2018: In his first video-conference since assuming position, new Minister of Interior Mohamed Tawfiq affirmed that the role of human rights officers at the police stations will be activated to provide the nationals, particularly people with disabilities and the elderly, with all the services they need.

In each police station, a human rights officer shall be present to check the civilians’ situations and to receive their complaints.

Tawfiq praised the police institution's counter-terrorism efforts nationwide, amid the ongoing terrorist plots, which seeks to undermine the state.

“We had a long run of our war against terrorism, particularly through the national epic shared by the ministry’s bodies, shoulder to shoulder, with the Armed Forces in Sinai,” Tawfiq said.

The minister added that a periodic review of the security strategy is inevitable to cope with the latest developments in the region. The pre-emptive deterrence attacks should be intensified, so the security bodies should be more skilled in collecting and analyzing information in cooperation with “the concerned bodies” to dismantle the terrorist networks, he continued.

He praised the efforts exerted by the ministry’s Information and Crisis Management Center in continuous monitoring of the vital institutions, public areas, and roads.


Tawfiq directed officials of the General Administration of Traffic to adopt a new traffic strategy for facilitating the traffic movements, asking for tightening the control over the local markets to prevent the merchants’ monopoly amid the current price hike following the increase of fuel price.

Tawfiq was born in 1961 in Giza governorate, and graduated from the Police Academy in 1982. He served in Cairo Security Directorate, and then joined the Homeland Security Department; he got promoted to be the chairperson of the Homeland Security Service in October 2018.

He participated in the military campaigns, launched in cooperation with the Armed Forces, against terrorist groups in the Western Desert. He led a campaign against militants who belong to Hasm terrorist group in Fayoum government, Western Desert, killing 14 terrorists.

The new minister has participated in the security raid against terrorists in Abu Tesht village in Qena, Upper Egypt, joining the security forces in targeting elements suspected of killing police officer Ahmed Abdel-Fatah Gomaa.
He also participated in killing militants involved in the terrorist attack on Minya bus, where unidentified gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians to Samuel Monastery near the southern city of Minya, killing at least 28 people and wounding 29 others.

The minister joined the military forces in chasing militants involved in Palm Sunday church bombings on April 9, 2017. Twin suicide bombings took place at St. George’s Church in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta, and Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the main church in Alexandria. At least 45 people were reported killed and 126 injured.

Moreover, Tawfiq led other security operations that thwarted several attacks on security checkpoints in Islamilia, Fayoum, Sharqia, and other areas.

He also arrested a number of militants accused of murdering late Attorney-General Hisham Barakat.