CAIRO -- Opponents of President Mohammed Morsi have set fire to
offices of his Muslim Brotherhood in several Egyptian cities, clashing
with his supporters after the Islamist leader assumed sweeping new
powers.
State TV says Morsi opponents set fire to the offices in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Port Said and Ismailia.
Clashes
also erupted between the two sides in the Mediterranean city of
Alexandria, the southern city of Assiut and in Giza, the sister city of
the capital. In Alexandria, Morsi opponents hurled stones at Brotherhood
supporters outside a mosque and stormed a nearby office of the group.
The clashes came a day after Morsi announced sweeping new powers for himself, putting himself above judicial oversight.
Egypt's
Islamist president unilaterally decreed greater authorities for himself
Thursday and effectively neutralized a judicial system that had emerged
as a key opponent by declaring that the courts are barred from
challenging his decisions.
Riding high on U.S. and international
praise for mediating a Gaza cease-fire, Mohammed Morsi put himself above
oversight and gave protection to the Islamist-led assembly writing a
new constitution from a looming threat of dissolution by court order.
But the move is likely to fuel growing public anger that he and his Muslim Brotherhood are seizing too much power.
In
what was interpreted by rights activists as a de facto declaration of
emergency law, one of Morsi's decrees gave him the power to take "due
measures and steps" to deal with any "threat" to the revolution,
national unity and safety or anything that obstructs the work of state
institutions.
Morsi framed his decisions as necessary to protect
the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago and to
cement the nation's transition to democratic rule. Many activists,
including opponents of the Brotherhood, criticize the judiciary as
packed with judges and prosecutors sympathetic to Mubarak. Brotherhood
supporters accuse the courts of trying to block their agenda.
"He
had to act to save the country and protect the course of the
revolution," said one of Morsi's aides, Pakinam al-Sharqawi, speaking on
Al-Jazeera. "It is a major stage in the process of completing the
January 25th revolution," she said, alluding to the starting day of last
year's uprising against Mubarak.
In a nod to revolutionary
sentiment, Morsi also ordered the retrial of Mubarak and top aides on
charges of killing protesters during the uprising. He also created a new
"protection of the revolution" judicial body to swiftly carry out the
prosecutions. But he did not order retrials for lower-level police
acquitted of such killings, another widespread popular demand that would
disillusion the security forces if carried out.
Liberal
politicians immediately criticized the decrees as dictatorial and
destined to divide a nation already reeling from months of turmoil
following Mubarak's ouster. Some said they exceeded the powers once
enjoyed by Mubarak.
"Morsi today usurped all state powers &
appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh," pro-reform leader Mohamed
ElBaradei wrote on Twitter. "A major blow to the revolution that could
have dire consequences."
ElBaradei
later addressed a news conference flanked by other prominent
politicians from outside the Brotherhood, including two presidential
candidates who ran against Morsi, Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi.
They
pledged to cooperate to force Morsi to rescind his assumption of
greater powers. "We will work together as Egyptians until we achieve the
goals of our revolution," said ElBaradei, a former director of the
U.N.'s nuclear agency and Nobel peace laureate.
They called for
mass protests Friday to demand the dissolution of the declarations. The
audience interrupted the press conference, chanting "Down with the
Guide's rule," referring to the Supreme Guide of Morsi's Muslim
Brotherhood group, Mohammed Badie.
The prospect of large rival
protests involving Morsi's opponents and supporters in Cairo on Friday
raises the likelihood of clashes.
Thousands from the rival camps were already out on the streets of Cairo late Thursday in an increasingly charged atmosphere.
A
crowd of Brotherhood supporters massed outside the Supreme Court
building and offices of the prosecutor general – whom Morsi removed in
Thursday's edict. They chanted slogans for "the cleansing of the
judiciary," shouting, "The people support the president's decisions."
Leading Brotherhood member Mohammed el-Beltagi, attending the rally,
singled out several critics of Morsi from among the ranks of the
judiciary for criticism.
Meanwhile, blocks away near Tahrir
Square, hundreds of demonstrators held a fourth straight day of protests
against Morsi and the Brotherhood. "Brotherhood is banned from entry,"
declared a large banner at the protest.
Wael Ghonim, an icon of
the anti-Mubarak uprising, rejected Morsi's decisions, arguing the
president could have protected the revolution without concentrating so
much power in his hands.
"The revolution was not staged in search
for a benign dictator, there is a difference between revolutionary
decisions and dictatorial decisions. God is the only one whose decisions
are not questioned."
The Egyptian leader decreed that all
decisions he has made since taking office in June and until a new
constitution is adopted and a new parliament is elected cannot be
appealed in court or by any other authority. Parliamentary elections are
not likely before next spring.
The decree also barred the courts
from dissolving the controversy-plagued assembly writing the new
constitution. Several courts have been looking into lawsuits demanding
the panel be disbanded.
The Brotherhood and Morsi allies who
dominate the assembly have pushed to give the draft an Islamist slant
that opponents fear would marginalize women and minority Christians,
infringe on personal liberties and even give Muslim clerics a say in
lawmaking. Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the assembly
during the past week to protest what they say is the hijacking of the
process by Morsi's allies.
Morsi on Thursday extended by two
months, until February, the deadline for the assembly to produce a
draft, apparently to give members more time to iron out their
differences.
He also barred any court from dissolving the
Islamist-led upper house of parliament, a largely toothless body that
has also faced court cases.
The president made most of the changes
Thursday in a declaration amending an interim constitution that has
been in effect since shortly after Mubarak's fall and has over time
become a ramshackle patchwork. The military, which took power after
Mubarak, set the precedent for the executive unilaterally issuing
constitutional changes, which it did several times during its 16-month
rule.
The moves come as Morsi basks in lavish praise from
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for
mediating an end to eight days of fighting between Israel and Gaza's
Hamas rulers. Clinton was in Cairo on Wednesday, when she held extensive
talks with Morsi.
Morsi not only holds executive power, he also
has legislative authority after a previous court ruling just before he
took office on June 30 dissolved the powerful lower house of parliament,
which was led by the Brotherhood. With two branches of power in his
hands, Morsi effectively took away many prerogatives of the third, the
judiciary.
The provision for a retrial of Mubarak appeared to be a
gesture to public opinion. The decree called for "new investigations
and trials" against those who held "political or executive" positions in
the old regime and who are accused of killing protesters.
Mubarak
was convicted in June to life in prison for failing to stop the killing
of protesters during last year's uprising against his rule, but many
Egyptians were angered that he wasn't convicted of actually ordering the
crackdown and that his security chief, Habib el-Adly, was not sentenced
to death. Several top police commanders were acquitted, and Mubarak and
his sons were found not guilty of corruption charges.
But the
decree would not mean retrials for the dozens of lower-level police
officers who have been acquitted or received suspended sentences in
trials for killing protesters – verdicts that have outraged many
Egyptians. That exclusion will guarantee Morsi the loyalty of the
powerful but hated police force.
Morsi on Thursday also fired the
country's top prosecutor, Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud. A Mubarak-era appointee,
Mahmoud has faced widespread accusations that his office did a shoddy
job collecting evidence against Mubarak, el-Adly and the police in
trials.
Morsi first fired Mahmoud in October but had to rescind
his decision when he found that the powers of his office do not empower
him to do so. So on Thursday, he decreed that the prosecutor general
could serve in office only for four years, with immediate effect on
Mahmoud, who had held the post since 2006. Morsi replaced Mahmoud with
Talaat Abdullah, a career judge, and swiftly swore him in.
Thursday's
decisions were read on state television by Morsi's spokesman, Yasser
Ali. In a throwback to the days of the authoritarian Mubarak and his
predecessors Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the television followed
up with a slew of nationalist songs.
Associated Press