Morsi investigation opens
Egypt’s ousted president likely to face charges
CAIRO — Prosecutors opened an investigation of ousted President Mohammed Morsi on charges including murder and conspiracy with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, fuelling tensions amid a showdown in the streets between tens of thousands of backers of the military and supporters calling for the Islamist leader’s reinstatement.
Clashes between Morsi supporters and opponents erupted outside a major mosque in the coastal city of Alexandria, with the two sides throwing stones and firing birdshot at each other. Police and army forces lobbed tear gas and deployed soldiers but were unable to break up the fighting, which killed seven people and injured more than 100. Minor scuffles erupted in a Cairo neighbourhood and in the Nile Delta city of Damietta with at least 18 injured, according to health officials.
The announcement of the case against Morsi, which is likely to pave the way to a formal indictment, was the first word on his legal status since the military deposed him on July 3. For more than three weeks, the Islamist leader has been held by the military in a secret location, incommunicado.
Supporters of Morsi denied the charges against him, calling them politically motivated but vowed to keep their protests peaceful.
On Friday, a spokesman for Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood said the move to prosecute Morsi showed “the complete bankruptcy of the leaders of the bloody coup.”
Egyptians “reject the return of the dictatorial police state and all the repression, tyranny and theft it entails,” Ahmed Aref said in a statement.
The accusations are connected to a prison break during the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak in which gunmen attacked a prison northwest of Cairo, freeing prisoners including Morsi and some 30 other figures from his Muslim Brotherhood. The prosecutors allege Morsi and the Brotherhood worked with Hamas to carry out the break, in which 14 guards were killed.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed deep concern about
Egyptians reject the return of the dictatorial police state AHMED AREF
reports of Morsi’s detention.
“I can’t speak to the specific charges. But we do believe that it is important that there be a process to work toward his release,” she said. “Clearly, this process should respect the personal security of him and take into account the volatile political situation in Egypt and that’s where our focus is. We have conveyed publicly and privately that his personal security and treatment is of utmost importance.”
Massive crowds, meanwhile, poured into main squares in Cairo and other cities in support of the military after the army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for rallies. ElSissi said days earlier he hoped for a giant public turnout to give him a mandate to stop “violence and terrorism,” raising speculation he may be planning a crackdown on pro-Morsi protests.
At the same time, crowds of Islamist backers of Morsi massed at their own rallies, part of what the Brotherhood and its allies had previously said would be their biggest protests to date to demand the reinstatement of the president. El-Sissi’s call days earlier may have been in part aimed to overwhelm the Islamist numbers in Friday’s rallies, as each side tries to show the depth of its public support.
The rival shows of strength only deepen the country’s divisions since Morsi’s fall. Clashes and fist fights broke out between the rival camps in Alexandria, with seven killed and more than 100 injured, according to health official Mohammed Abu Suleiman.
El-Sissi deposed Morsi after four days of protests by millions of Egyptians demanding the removal of the country’s first freely elected president following months of political standoff between him and the largely secular opposition. Since then, Islamists have been holding sit-ins and rallies daily.