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.

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