Skip to main content

Egyptian security forces clash with anti-Mohamed Morsi protesters

President seen leaving Cairo palace in convoy as opponents gather to condemn assumption of new powers
The Guardian, Wednesday 5 December 2012
A Egyptian woman prays in front of members of the security forces as they lay out barbed wire along streets leading to the presidential palace. Photograph: AFP/Getty
Egyptian security forces have clashed with opponents of Mohamed Morsi who gathered outside the presidential palace in Cairo to protest against his assumption of new powers.
The march came amid rising anger over decrees Morsi has passed that give him sweeping powers. Opponents say the drafting of a new constitution has been rushed and is a move towards dictatorial rule. Morsi has called for a referendum on the draft constitution on 15 December.
Marchers chanted that "the people want the downfall of the regime", and held placards bearing slogans of "no to the constitution".
One witness said he had seen Morsi's convoy leave the palace from a side gate during the clashes. He said: "I was part of the Abbasiya march. When the fighting started a lot of teargas was fired and we were pushed back. The barbed wire barricade was opened, a convoy of cars left the palace, and then we were allowed to come closer. After that, we entered the street."
The protests came as Egypt's public prosecutor referred a complaint against three former presidential candidates to the country's state prosecution service for espionage and plotting against the state.
The complaint against Mohamed ElBaradei, Hamdein Sabahy and Amr Moussa, as well as Wafd party leader Sayed Badawi, was filed by Hamed Sadek, a lawyer who is accusing the opposition figureheads of being embroiled in a "Zionist plot" to overthrow the Islamist-led government.
Egypt's near-daily protests represent the country's worst political crisis since Hosni Mubarak was ousted, nearly two years ago. Since then the country has been divided, with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood alongside ultraconservative Salafi Islamists on one side, and youth groups and more liberal organisations on the other.
Thousands had marched towards the presidential palace to protest a decree that granted president Mohamed Morsi extraordinary powers ahead of a planned referendum on a constitution also opposed by the demonstrators.
Security forces cordoned the palace off with barbed wire, at which most protesters stopped to chant slogans against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. On a cordoned-off side street, security forces clashed with a section of the protesters and fired teargas to disperse them. The security forces then abruptly withdrew, leaving an empty police truck that protesters climbed on to as people filled the street. Members of the forces that were left behind were escorted away before they could be set upon.In the absence of an adversary, protesters chanted for Morsi to leave the palace, denouncing his unilateral decisions and the supposed influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other protesters milled about in the gardens surrounding the gates of the presidential palace.
A few hundred protesters also gathered near Morsi's house, in a suburb east of Cairo, chanting slogans against his decree and against the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he emerged to win the presidential election in June.
As the crisis from Morsi's decree and the subsequent furore over the referendum continues, further schisms were apparent within the judiciary when the judges of the state council refused to supervise the referendum. Their announcement came a day after the judiciary's highest body, the state judicial council, announced that Egypt's judges would do so.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re...

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has ...

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, sp...