Pro-Morsi Alliance Plans Week-Long Protests against Arrests
Egypt’s National Alliance to Support Legitimacy has called for fresh daily protests this week — under the slogan “Freedom for the honourable” — against recent arrests of its loyalists, including women, in demonstrations in support of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The alliance, a pro-Morsi coalition led by the Muslim Brotherhood, will start its new week of protests with a demonstration Saturday at the High Court in Ramses Street, Downtown Cairo, where the offices of the general prosecution are located.
The alliance claimed in an official statement released late Friday that the general prosecution is “giving a legitimate cover” to what it described as a “coup,” referring to the army’s ouster of Morsi 3 July amid mass nationwide protests against his rule.
“Politicising the judiciary and making it a part of the coup’s crimes is very dangerous because it deprives the state’s institutions of their neutrality and value,” the statement said.
Last week, 21 Muslim Brotherhood women were arrested during a pro-Morsi demonstration in Egypt’s second largest city Alexandria.
Video footage circulating on social media networks showed security forces manhandling some of the women arrested.
On Friday, two people were killed in clashes between pro-Morsi protesters and their opponents in working-class district of Omraniya, Giza. The demonstrations were protesting the women’s arrest and were dubbed “Egypt’s women are a red line.”
Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members, including dozens of its leading figures, have been arrested in a security crackdown following the forced dispersal by police and security forces of pro-Morsi sit-ins 14 August that left hundreds dead. The arrested mainly face charges of inciting violence.
Morsi himself, along with 14 other Brotherhood members, is standing trial on charges of inciting the killing of protesters during clashes at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in December 2012.
The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy has been staging demonstrations since Morsi’s ouster against the interim government, calling for his reinstatement.
Source: Ahram Online
