Hundreds of Islamist and secular protesters gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square yesterday for a mass rally to press the ruling military to hand power to a civilian government.
As legislative elections draw near — the first polls since a popular uprising toppled former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak— protesters are demanding more control over the constitution the new parliament is to draft.
They want the withdrawal of a government document that proposes supra-constitutional principles, which could see the ruling military’s budget shielded from public scrutiny.
Photo: Reuters
While the protest grouped different political stripes under different banners, the unifying call was for the military to hand power to a civilian government as soon as possible.
The powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party led the call for the protest.
Liberal, leftist and other Islamist parties said they would participate in the rally, as well as pro-democracy movements that launched the Jan. 25 uprising.
The contested government document, presented by Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Ali Silmi, drew fire from most quarters for including clauses that removed the military’s budget from parliamentary oversight and allowed the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) a final say on military-related matters.
The government revised the draft, but Islamists, who organized a mass protest in July against such a charter, have rejected the very idea of a document that would limit parliament’s authority to draft the constitution, branding the articles as undemocratic.
The Brotherhood, through its Freedom and Justice Party, may emerge as the largest bloc in the election, the first since an uprising ousted Mubarak in February.
The SCAF, which took charge after Mubarak’s ouster and suspended the Constitution and parliament, said it would hand over power once a new president is elected.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to start on Nov. 28 and are expected to end in March next year.
The demonstration came a day after 25 were injured when a Coptic Christian march came under attack by assailants throwing stones and bottles in Cairo.
The Copts were marching to demand justice for the Christian victims of a clash with soldiers last month that left at least 25 people dead, most of them Christian.
They were marching from the northern Shoubra suburb toward Tahrir Square in the city center when the clashes broke out.
“The locals in the neighborhood of Bulak attacked the group on their way to the square and threw stones at them,” a security source said.
“We were attacked by the residents nearby ... And I saw two demonstrators injured,” Christian protester Rizk Samir said.
A security official said supporters of an Islamist election candidate in the northern neighborhood of Shoubra joined in the attack on the Copts.
The marchers scattered after the attack. Riot police arrived and a priest asked the protesters to disperse, saying the army had sealed off the city center near Tahrir and the march could not go ahead.
Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million people, complain of discrimination in the Muslim-majority country.
The deadliest took place on Oct. 9, when thousands of Christians protesting an attack on a church clashed with soldiers.
Witnesses said the soldiers fired on the demonstrators and ran them over with military vehicles, which the military denies.
The military said a number of soldiers were killed in the clash.
State-run MENA news agency quoted a spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Health as saying the injuries varied between bruises, minor cuts and fainting. Of the injured, 24 were released after receiving medical care.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of