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The mandate of an Egyptian fact-finding commission into the events that followed the ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi was extended after the commission received new photos and videos of last year's violent dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins, the head of the commission said Saturday.
Fouad Abdel-Monem Riyad added that his commission had received the photos and the videos from different people, including eyewitnesses of the sit-ins' dispersals, as well as the Interior Ministry and the general prosecution.
He said the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement from which Morsi hails, did not present to his commission any photos or videos of the events.
He added that his commission had asked Human Rights Watch to present it with proofs it had taken from the Brotherhood and included in a report that was released on the first anniversary of the events last month.
He said, however, that the international rights group had not replied to his commission's request yet.
"We do not want our report [about the events] to be truncated," Riyad said. "This is why we call on all parties to present their testimonies before the commission completes its work," he told Anadolu Agency.
Earlier on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi agreed to extend by two months the mandate of the inquiry.
According to the presidential extension, the mission of the fact-finding commission into the events should end on November 21.
The move came in response to a request by the commission in the light of the flow of information from different sides, the commission said in a statement.
"This [flow of information] required more time for study and the preparation of the final report," it added in its statement.
The commission was formed by presidential decree last December to collect information and evidence on events that followed the June 30 protests that precipitated Morsi's ouster.
The Muslim Brotherhood had earlier turned down an invitation to cooperate with the commission due to what it described as "a disregard" for the group's point of view in the past.
Morsi supporters had staged a sit-in in eastern Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square to protest the elected leader's ouster by the military on July 3 following protests against his government.
The violent dispersal of the sit-in, along with a second sit-in in Giza's Nahda Square, left 632 people, including eight policemen, dead, according to the state-run National Council for Human Rights.
Other local and international human rights groups, however, said fatalities from the sit-in dispersal had exceeded 1,000.
The commission should have completed its mission on Sunday.
By Hagar al-Dosoki
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire
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