Egypts Morsi draws up commission to look into protesters deaths

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree on Thursday evening calling for the formation of a fact-finding committee to investigate the killing of unarmed anti-regime protesters from last year’s Tahrir Square uprising until the military’s handover of executive authority late last month.

The committee will reportedly be headed up by Judge Fareed El-Gazaeri. It will reportedly be comprised of nine prominent public personalities, including judges Mohamed El-Bastawisi, Mohamed Shirbash and Adel Said; doctors Mohamed Badran and Mahmoud Qbeish; General Emad Hussein; Egypt’s assistant public prosecutor; head of the Egyptian intelligence apparatus’ national security committee; and the assistant minister of interior.

According to Morsi’s Thursday decree, the committee will also include six relatives of slain or injured protesters, who will act as observers.  

Some interior ministry officers that had been charged with killing protesters at the height of last year’s uprising were acquitted last month in a high-profile – and highly unpopular – court verdict.  

In the same case, ousted president Hosni Mubarak and the latter’s long-serving interior minister Habib El-Adli were both slapped with life sentences for their respective roles in the killing of protesters during the 18-day uprising that culminated in Mubarak’s ouster. Mubarak's two sons and six of El-Adli's assistants, all of whom had faced similar charges, were also acquitted.

Morsi was sworn in on 30 June as Egypt’s first freely-elected president following a hard-fought electoral victory over Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister.