Middle East
Egypt president defends decree as necessary
Turmoil in Egypt as opposition calls for protests to denounce President Morsi after he sacks prosecutor general.
Last Modified: 23 Nov 2012 14:35
Supporters and opponents of Egypt's president have clashed in the northern port town of Alexandria after he assumed sweeping new powers, a clear show of the deepening polarisation plaguing the country.
President Mohamed Morsi's on Thursday issued a declaration giving himself powers that go beyond those held by toppled president Hosni Mubarak, putting himself above the judiciary and exemptimg the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from judicial review.
Liberal and secular members earlier walked out of the body, charging it would impose strict Islamic practices.
Opponents of President Mohamed Morsi broke into the offices
of the Freedom and Justice Party, setting it on fire [AFP]
Fifteen people were injured in clashes between supporters and opponents of the president. The headquarters of Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party headquarters in Alexandria was set on fire by protesters on Friday afternoon. The party's offices have been attacked in five cities in total.
Thousands of protesters began gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday after Egyptian opposition leaders called for a "million man march" to protest against what they say is a coup by Morsi.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Cairo, said that crowds were there were continuing to grow in the afternoon.
"It's almost the same scenes that we saw during all those protests against President Mubarak, and yet, this is the elected president of Egypt. But the people here say he's not behaving like an elected president of a country that still doesn't have a constitution," said Bays.
"They say that he's behaving like a dictator, like a king, like even, they say, a pharaoh."
Hundreds of Morsi's supporters rallied outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday to express support for the president. Addressing his supporters there, Morsi vowed to never be biased against any group.
"I will never be against any Egyptians because we are all together and we need to give momentum to freedom and democracy and the transfer," said Morsi.
"I like to support what you want - to have stability and safety, the safety of the individual and safety of the nation," said Morsi, adding that he aimed to bring social and economic stability to Egypt. Doing so, he said requires "getting rid of the obstacles of the past".
"My decision is to keep and to maintain and to preserve the nation and the people," said Morsi.
"I don't want to have all the powers...but if I see my nation in danger, I will do and I will act. I must."
'Protecting the revolution'
Morsi's decree raises very serious human rights concerns, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said on Friday.
"We are very concerned about the possible huge ramifications of this declaration on human rights and the rule of law in Egypt," Rupert Colville told a news briefing at the United Nations in Geneva. "We also fear this could lead to a very volatile situation over the next few days, starting today in fact."
Morsi framed his decisions as necessary to protect the revolution that ousted Mubarak nearly two years ago and to cement the nation's transition to democratic rule.
The president's decree, which dismissed Abdel Majid Mahmoud, Egypt's prosecutor general, prompted opposition figure Mohamed El Baradei to accuse Morsi of usurping authority and becoming a "new pharaoh", while other opposition figures on Friday called for nationwide protests
"This is a coup against legitimacy... We are calling on all Egyptians to protest in all of Egypt's squares on Friday," said Sameh Ashour, head of the lawyers' syndicate, in a joint news conference with leading dissidents Amr Moussa and ElBaradei.
"The president can issue any decision or measure to protect the revolution," according to a decree read out on television by Yasser Ali, a presidential spokesperson.
'Absolute monarch'
Al Jazeera's Peter Greste, reporting from Cairo on Thursday, said the new declaration meant that Mahmoud was now retroactively dismissed as he had already been in office for six years.
Morsi's statement also indicated that there would be a retrial of all who were acquitted of the murder and attempted murder of protesters, because, according to Morsi's spokesman, they were acquitted based on flawed evidence.
Mahmoud has been replaced by Talaat Ibrahim, who said in a brief statement after being sworn in on Thursday night that he would "work day and night to achieve the goals of the revolution".
"At the same time, there are those who are very concerned that this means that the president is overreaching his authority," Al Jazeera's Greste said.
Hassan Nafaa, professor of political science at Cairo University, told Al Jazeera that Morsi "is erecting himself as an absolute monarch" because he did not consult the opposition on the decision.
"The problem is not about the content of the decisions itself, but about the way it was taken," he said.
"This is a dangerous situation for the whole country. It is very confusing, because we don't know if we are in the presence of a constitutional declaration, or of a law, or of just administrative degrees," said Nafaa.
"We have all of this together in the same statement."
More than 800 people were killed during the revolution, and 11,000 wounded. Violence against protesters continued after Mubarak's toppling, with hundreds killed and thousands more arbitrarily detained.
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