Head of the ruling Supreme Council for the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, on Tuesday decided to transfer responsibility for investigating the Maspero clashes from the military prosecution to the public prosecution.
The violence, which erupted during a protest attended mostly by Coptic Christians at the Maspero building in Cairo on 9 October, caused an outcry among activists and human rights groups. The media reported that at least 27 people, most of them Coptic protesters, were killed.
The Maspero Youth Union, a Coptic activist group, had criticized the decision to assign investigations to military prosecutors, arguing that the army itself stands accused of assaulting protesters.
SCAF also decided to transfer investigations of the violence in Tahrir Square on 19 and 20 November to the public prosecution, SCAF said in a statement on its official Facebook page.
