Egypt dissolves feared internal security force

Egyptian Interior Minister Mansur al-Issawi disbanded the long-feared security police on Tuesday barely 10 days after taking office on a pledge to restore public confidence, state media said.

"Interior Minister Mansur al-Issawi decided today to cancel all administrative branches and offices of State Security in all the republic's provinces," the official MENA news agency reported.

The Interior Ministry replaced state security with a new National Security Force, which would serve "the nation without interfering in the lives of citizens or their right to exercise their political rights", the state news agency reported.

The new security agency would be tasked with guarding internal security and fighting terrorism in line with the constitution and the principles of human rights.

The security branch, which was empowered to conduct emergency trials, was widely despised and its officers accused of committing torture.

Egyptian protesters stormed several state security buildings early this month to retrieve files kept on the population by the powerful regime apparatus long accused of human rights abuses.

As with the Stasi in East Germany, state security had sweeping powers, intervening in everything from university elections to public sector appointments.

Protesters who forced the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in February have repeatedly called for the abolition of the State Security Investigations, or SSI, which has at least 100,000 employees and a large network of informants.

Its head has been arrested and is facing investigation for ordering the killing of demonstrators during the uprising against Mubarak. Another 47 of its personnel have been detained on suspicion of destroying documents.

Egypt's newly appointed Prime Minister Essam Sharaf had vowed to reform the dreaded security apparatus as he addressed thousands of people in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the focal point of the protests that toppled Mubarak.

"I pray that Egypt will be a free country and that its security apparatus will serve the citizens," Sharaf said, as thousands chanted "the people want the end of the state security."

Mubarak resigned on February 11, handing power to a military council that has vowed to pave the way to a free and democratic system, pledging to bring to justice all those found guilty of abuse.

Activists say that while torture was once reserved for political prisoners and terrorism suspects, it became widely practiced even on suspected petty criminals.