Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — Egypt has acknowledged a crime wave amid the rule of
President Mohammed Morsi.

The Interior Ministry said crime has skyrocketed over the last year as
police were unable to maintain order in much of Egypt. The ministry reported
a near-200 percent in homicides since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak
in 2011.

“Since the revolution, state institutions have fallen and aren’t stable
anymore,” Interior Minister Abdul Fatah Othman said. “Even the judiciary has taken a step back.”

[On May 5, Egyptian police arrested a man accused of firing toward Prime
Minister Hisham Kandil in Cairo. Officials said Kandil was not injured.]

The ministry also reported a more than 10-fold increase in armed
robberies from 2010 to 2012. Burglaries were also said to have increased by more than 50 percent.

In an interview with Britain’s Financial Times on May 4, Othman
attributed the crime to unemployment as well as the escape of thousands of prisoners in 2011. The minister also cited the flow of firearms and other
weapons from neighboring Libya.

In contrast, abductions that included ransom sharply rose in 2012. The
minister said the abductions — which rose from 107 in 2010 to 412 in
2012 — were fueled by the families of captives meeting the demands of
abductors.

“In the period when things were really chaotic, people would just pay
the [ransom] money because they didn’t have any confidence in the police,”
Othman said.

  200-percent increase in homicides, Abdul Fatah Othman, Egypt’s crime rate skyrockets, Hisham Kandil, institutions ‘aren’t stable’ under Morsi, Mohammed Morsi