By Tom Perry
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi
faced a rebellion from judges who accused him on Saturday of expanding
his powers at their expense, deepening a crisis that has triggered
violence in the street and exposed the country's deep divisions.
The Judges' Club, a body representing judges across Egypt,
called for a strike during a meeting interrupted with chants demanding
the "downfall of the regime" - the rallying cry in the uprising that
toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.
Mursi's political
opponents and supporters, representing the divide between newly
empowered Islamists and their critics, called for rival demonstrations
on Tuesday over a decree that has triggered concern in the West.
Issued late on
Thursday, it marks an effort by Mursi to consolidate his influence after
he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August. The decree
defends from judicial review decisions taken by Mursi until a new
parliament is elected in a vote expected early next year.
It also shields the
Islamist-dominated assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from a
raft of legal challenges that have threatened the body with dissolution,
and offers the same protection to the Islamist-controlled upper house
of parliament.
Egypt's highest
judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, said the decree was an
"unprecedented attack" on the independence of the judiciary. The
Judges' Club, meeting in Cairo, called on Mursi to rescind it.
That demand was
echoed by prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei. "There is no
room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent
measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," he said.
"I am waiting to
see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S.,
by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity," he
said in an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press.
More than 300
people were injured on Friday as protests against the decree turned
violent. There were attacks on at least three offices belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that propelled Mursi to power.
POLARISATION
Liberal, leftist
and socialist parties called a big protest for Tuesday to force Mursi to
row back on a move they say has exposed the autocratic impulses of a
man once jailed by Mubarak.
In a sign of the
polarization in the country, the Muslim Brotherhood called its own
protests that day to support the president's decree.
Mursi also assigned
himself new authority to sack the prosecutor general, who was appointed
during the Mubarak era, and appoint a new one. The dismissed prosecutor
general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, was given a hero's welcome at the
Judges' Club.
In open defiance of Mursi, Ahmed al-Zind, head of the club, introduced Mahmoud by his old title.
The Mursi
administration has defended the decree on the grounds that it aims to
speed up a protracted transition from Mubarak's rule to a new system of
democratic government.
Analysts say it
reflects the Brotherhood's suspicion towards sections of a judiciary
unreformed from Mubarak's days.
"It aims to
sideline Mursi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and
head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a
fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.
"We are in a
situation now where both sides are escalating and its getting harder and
harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down."
ADVISOR TO MURSI QUITS
Following a day of
violence in Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, the smell of tear gas
hung over the capital's Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising
that toppled Mubarak in 2011 and the stage for more protests on Friday.
Youths clashed
sporadically with police near the square, where activists camped out for
a second day on Saturday, setting up makeshift barricades to keep out
traffic.
Al-Masry Al-Youm,
one of Egypt's most widely read dailies, hailed Friday's protest as "The
November 23 Intifada", invoking the Arabic word for uprising.
But the
ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist groups that have been pushing for tighter
application of Islamic law in the new constitution have rallied behind
Mursi's decree.
The Nour Party, one
such group, stated its support for the Mursi decree. Al-Gama'a
al-Islamiya, which carried arms against the state in the 1990s, said it
would save the revolution from what it described as remnants of the
Mubarak regime.
Samir Morkos, a
Christian assistant to Mursi, had told the president he wanted to
resign, said Yasser Ali, Mursi's spokesman. Speaking to the London-based
Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Morkos said: "I refuse to continue in the
shadow of republican decisions that obstruct the democratic transition".
Mursi's decree has
been criticized by Western states that earlier this week were full of
praise for his role in mediating an end to the eight-day war between
Israel and Palestinians.
"The decisions and
declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians
and for the international community," State Department spokeswoman
Victoria Nuland said.
The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process.
(Additional
reporting by Omar Fahmy, Marwa Awad, Edmund Blair and Shaimaa Fayed and
Reuters TV; Editing by Jon Hemming)
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