Egypt braces for rival rallies after Morsi 'coup'

A demonstration in Tahrir Square to reject the constitutional declaration issued by President Mohamed Morsi Cairo – Akram Ali with agencies Supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called rival demonstrations Friday after the Islamist leader assumed sweeping powers in what critics dubbed a "coup". A group of the Egyptian opposition is organising a peaceful demonstration on Friday in Tahrir Square to urge the dismissal of certain government officials and to demonstrate against the ‘New Pharaoh”.
118 people were injured and others were arrested in the demonstrations this week, the Egyptian government announced Wednesday afternoon.
Tear gas was used on Thursday to disperse protestors in Talaat Harb Street and Abdel Moneim Riyad Square, a state television website reported.
Fourteen political groups condemned what they say was the Interior Ministry's excessive use of violence against demonstrators. They held President Mohammed Morsi and Islamists responsible and called for the dismissal of the government and the prosecution of the Interior Minister and his aides.
Among the forces that signed the statement were the No to Military Trials Campaign, the New Woman Foundation, al-Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Revolutionary Socialists, Freedom Egypt Party, and the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.
The American University of Cairo was closed on Thursday and postponed their events until further notice due to the violence.
Morsi's backers led by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood gathered outside the presidential palace in north Cairo in a show of support for his decision to temporarily place his decisions above judicial oversight.
"The people support the president's decisions," the crowd chanted.
Morsi was mulling an address to the nation defending his decision later in the day, aides said.
His liberal opponents were set to march to Tahrir Square after the main weekly Muslim prayers, led by leading secular politicians Mohamed El-Baradei, a former UN nuclear watchdog chief, and Amr Mussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League chief.
"This is a coup against legitimacy... We are calling on all Egyptians to protest in all of Egypt's squares on Friday," said Sameh Ashour, head of the lawyers' syndicate, in a joint news conference with El-Baradei and Mussa.
ElBaradei denounced Morsi as a "new pharaoh," the same term of derision used against Mubarak when he was in power.
"Morsi is a 'temporary' dictator," read the banner headline in Friday's edition of independent daily Al-Masry Youm.
The Islamist president assumed sweeping powers on Thursday in a decree read out by his spokesman Yasser Ali on state television.
"The president can issue any decision or measure to protect the revolution," it said.
"The constitutional declarations, decisions and laws issued by the president are final and not subject to appeal."
Morsi also sacked prosecutor general Abdel Meguid Mahmud, whom he failed to oust last month, amid strong misgivings among the president's supporters about the failure to secure convictions of more members of the old regime.
He appointed Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah to replace Mahmud and, within minutes of the announcement, the new prosecutor was shown on television being sworn in.
Abdullah later issued a brief statement on state television, pledging to "work day and night to achieve the goals of the revolution."
In his pronouncement, the president also ordered "new investigations and retrials" in cases involving the deaths of protesters, a decision that could military top brass and other former Mubarak regime officials.
The declaration is aimed at "cleansing state institutions" and "destroying the infrastructure of the old regime," the president's spokesman said.
A senior official of the Justice and Freedom Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, said Morsi's decision was necessary to guarantee the revolution was on course.
"We could not find any legal avenue to pinpoint and prosecute those in the interior ministry who were responsible for killings," Gehad Haddad told AFP.
He said there had been a string of acquittals of interior ministry officials, evidence was withheld in cases, investigations had been weak and many had not been brought to trial over the killings of hundreds of protesters during and since the uprising -- a view that secular protesters would agree with.
"The avenues we are taking are born of necessity, not choice," he said.
Some 850 protesters were killed in clashes with security forces or Mubarak loyalists during last year's uprising. Only the ousted president and his interior minister Habib al-Adly have been convicted over the deaths.