Over 1,000 protesters were injured during clashes with central security police last night and early this morning. The confrontations followed an event commemorating the martyrs of the revolution and protesting the delayed trial of former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly. Initially, clashes erupted between police and martyrs’ families as the latter gathered at the Balloon Theater in Cairo’s Agouza district following a sit-in at Maspero. Part of this group then marched towards the Interior Ministry, where violence escalated against the martyrs’ families as police made more arrests. As word of the clashes spread, thousands flocked to Tahrir Square to express solidarity with the families. In their attempts to clear Tahrir Square and scatter protesters, police “showered the square with tear gas canisters and fired bullets into the air.”
Protesters called on Supreme Council of the Armed Forces head Mohamed Hussein Tantawi to resign during the demonstrations. This demand stems in part from anger over the delays of former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly’s trial on charges of “unlawfully killing pro-change protesters.”