Egypt’s Mansour Sworn in as Interim Head of State

The head of Egypt’s supreme constitutional court, Adli Mansour, has just been sworn in as interim head of state on Thursday after the armed forces overthrew elected President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday for failing to listen to mass protests’ demands to share power.

Judge Adli Mansour was born on December 23, 1945 and graduated from Cairo University with a B.A. in law in 1967, before gaining a masters’ degree in the same field there in 1969.

He was hired in the state’s administrative court in 1970 and stayed there until he became the vice chairman of the court in 1992 before moving to the supreme constitutional court where he served as its first deputy. He was hired as the head of the constitutional court on July 1 by a decree from a top judiciary council that was approved by Morsi.

Three hours after the 48-hour deadline passes, the Egyptian army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sissi announced in a statement aired at 8:30 p.m. Cairo time (06:30 GMT) a new interim administration headed by the country’s Constitutional Court Head who shall form a strong consensus government and supervise new elections to write down a new constitution and to choose a new head of state.

The commander of Egypt’s armed forces, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, stated that the army has given President Mohamed Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum in order to respond to the people’s will but the president refused stressing on the legitimacy and being in power. The army chief added that Morsi is no longer president and the chief of constitutional court would assume the task of interim president during a transitional period for Morsi failed to reach a solution with his opponents by the end of a Wednesday deadline.