Fireworks explode as supporters of the Egyptian armed forces demonstrate in Cairo, yesterday.
CAIRO: Egypt yesterday formally detained deposed president Mohammed Mursi for allegedly abetting Palestinian militants in murdering policemen and staging prison breaks, as clashes between the ousted leader’s supporters and opponents killed two people.
Mursi’s detention, under a court order for a renewable 15 days, further raised tensions as those applauding the decision and those demanding the Islamist leader’s reinstatement flooded parts of Cairo and other cities.
Two people were killed in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria in clashes between the rivals protesters, despite a massive police and military deployment to secure the rallies.
The Arab world’s most populous country has been convulsed by violence for the past three weeks, with some 200 people killed since Mursi’s ouster by the army on July 3, many in clashes between his Islamist supporters and his opponents.
At least 19 people were wounded in the Alexandria violence, in which riot police intervened. Ten people were wounded in clashes in Cairo, medical officials and the health ministry said.
The overwhelming number of yesterday’s marches have remained peaceful, with thousands of Mursi’s supporters gathering in a north Cairo square before setting off through the streets.
At Cairo’s Tahrir Square, tens of thousands of anti-Mursi supporters gathered in response to a call by the army chief General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Egyptians to show their support for a security clampdown on “terrorism”.
The protesters waved Egyptian flags and held up posters of Sisi, who served as Mursi’s defence minister before ousting him.
A leader of Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Essam Al Erian, said in a statement Islamists would respond to the detention of their leader with “peaceful marches”.
The Brotherhood however reacted angrily to his detention order, saying it smacked of tactics used by the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long-time strongman toppled in a popular uprising in 2011.
The accusations against Mursi include conspiring with Palestinian Hamas in attacks that killed policemen and prison breaks during the revolt against Mubarak, in which Mursi escaped along with other political inmates.
Mursi had been detained with other Muslim Brotherhood leaders overnight on January 27, 2011, hours after the Islamist group said it would join the revolt against Mubarak.
He is also accused of “premeditated murder of some prisoners, officers and soldiers, and kidnapping officers and soldiers,”, the state news agency Mena said.
Mursi is also suspected of conspiring to “storm prisons and destroy them... allowing prisoners to escape, including himself.”
Detention orders of the type ordered by the court are usually followed by moving the suspect to a prison. The military has so far kept his whereabouts secret to avoid attracting protests by his supporters. Gehad El Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, denounced the detention order, saying Mubarak’s regime was “signalling ‘we’re back in full force’.”
A court had on June 23 said Hamas militants facilitated the escape of prisoners during the tumultuous 18-day uprising that forced out Mubarak.
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood which supports the Gaza militant group’s fight against Israel, also denounced Mursi’s detention.
“Hamas condemns this move since it is based on the premise that the Hamas movement is hostile,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Mursi’s election victory in June 2012 had been hailed by Hamas as a triumph for Islamists.
He helped negotiate a truce to halt fighting between Israel and Hamas in November on favourable terms for the Islamists, but also oversaw the closing of smuggling tunnels to Gaza.
The military has reportedly given Mursi’s backers until the yesterday to end sit-in protests they began after the army deposed him.
The military has said there would be no reneging on a roadmap to fresh elections next year, drawn by the interim government installed after Mursi’s ouster.
The Brotherhood and allied Islamist groups have rejected the interim government and vowed to press their protests until Mursi is reinstated.
Western nations are watching the crisis in Egypt with growing unease, fearing the military may be angling for a prolonged power grab.
The United States has decided not to term the army’s overthrow of Mursi a “coup”, a move that would trigger an automatic freeze of some $1.5bn in aid, a US official said.
But the US did finally send the interim leaders a veiled warning on Wednesday by suspending the delivery of four promised F-16 fighter jets.
“The interim government’s strategy clearly consists of politically sidelining the Muslim Brotherhood until the elections,” said German Middle East expert Michael Lueders.
London-based rights group Amnesty International criticised Sisi’s call for rallies.
“Given the security forces’ routine use of excessive force, such a move is likely to lead to yet more unlawful killings,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s deputy director of its Middle East and North Africa programme.
AFP
