Egyptians supporters of ousted president Morsi protest in Cairo
CAIRO: Egypt’s judiciary extended ousted president Mohammed Mursi’s detention yesterday as his supporters marched through Cairo in defiance of the expiry of a government ultimatum to dismantle their protest camps.
The judiciary said it was extending Mursi’s detention for a further 15 days pending an investigation into his collaboration with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas which rules Gaza.
Overthrown by the military on July 3, Mursi was placed in detention on July 26 over his links with the group.
He is to be questioned on whether he collaborated with Hamas in attacks on police stations and prison breaks in early 2011, when Islamist and other political inmates escaped during a revolution which overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
The court said on June 23 that Hamas facilitated the escape of prisoners. At the time, Mursi, then a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader and whose whereabouts are being kept secret, told a TV station that Egyptians had helped prisoners escape.
Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators waving Egyptian flags and carrying Mursi’s pictures marched through the central neighbourhood of Ramses, as tensions rose over a threatened crackdown by authorities.
Mursi loyalists, led by the Brotherhood, have kept in place two sit-ins in the capital and staged almost daily demonstrations around Egypt against his ouster.
The army-installed interim leaders have repeatedly warned them to leave, offering the Brotherhood a return to political life in exchange for an end to protests. “There will be a series of gradual steps. We will announce every step along the way,” an Interior Ministry general said.
Agencies
