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28 March 2024

Egypt announces criminal investigation of Morsi

Published
By Reuters

Egypt announced a criminalinvestigation on Saturday against deposed President Mohamed Morsi, with prosecutors saying they were examiningcomplaints of spying, inciting violence and ruining the economy.

Egypt's first freely elected leader has been held at anundisclosed location since the army removed him from power onJuly 3, but has not yet been charged with any crime. In recentdays, Washington has called for him to be freed and for theauthorities to stop arresting leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood.

The public prosecutor's office said in a statement it hadreceived complaints against Morsi, eight other named Islamistfigures including the Brotherhood's leader, Mohamed Badie, andothers it did not identify.

The military says it deposed Morsi in a justified responseto popular demand after millions of people demonstrated againsthim. The Brotherhood says it was a coup that reversed democracy.

Turmoil in the most populous Arab state has alarmed theUnited States and other Western donors. Egypt straddles the SuezCanal and signed a US-brokered peace treaty with Israel in1979.

Complaints such as those against Morsi are a first step inthe criminal process, allowing prosecutors to begin aninvestigation that can lead to charges. Announcing the step wasunusual: typically prosecutors wait until charges are filed.

The prosecutors did not say who had made the complaints.Egyptian law allows them to investigate complaints from policeor any member of the public.

Badie and several other Brotherhood officials already facecharges for inciting violence that were announced earlier thisweek, but few of them have been arrested.

Asked about the announcement of criminal investigationsagainst Morsi, Badie and others, US State Departmentspokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "I can't speak to the specifics ofthis investigation, but generally speaking, we have made clearthe need to follow due process, respect the rule of law, andavoid politicized arrests and investigations."

Brotherhood rejcts charges

A senior army official told Reuters the authorities wereallowing the Brotherhood figures to remain at large in part sothat they could monitor their activities and collect evidence against them to ensure that any case was watertight.

"We will leave them to do their talking and protests and we are sure at the end everything will be resolved smoothly andlegally," said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said the charges wereabsurd and that it was the authorities themselves who were responsible for inciting violence.

"They execute the crime themselves and then they slap it ontheir opponents. As long as you have a criminal police force anda complicit judiciary, the evidence will appear and the judgewill be satisfied. And the media will sell it to the public."

Morsi's Brotherhood called on Saturday for more massdemonstrations after large protests broke up peacefully beforedawn, ending a week in which at least 90 people were killed.

The Brotherhood, which has maintained a vigil near a Cairomosque since before the army removed Morsi on July 3, has saidit will not leave the streets until he is restored to power.

Tens of thousands turned out on Friday for what theBrotherhood called a "day of marching on". Large crowds ofsupporters dispersed early on Saturday, although a few hundredmarched again after nightfall towards the defence ministry.

Morsi's opponents say these demonstrations are still muchsmaller than the ones that brought him down. However, theBrotherhood has shown its organisational muscle by keeping itsvigil running into a third week and bringing in coachloads ofsupporters from the provinces during the Ramadan fasting month.

Senior Brotherhood figure Essam el-Erian, one of those whofaces arrest, called on his Facebook page for moredemonstrations on Monday. "Egypt decides through the ballot box,through protests, mass marches and peaceful sit-ins," he said.

Bloody week


Friday's demonstration passed off peacefully, in contrast toa week earlier when 35 people were killed in battles betweenpro- and anti-Mursi demonstrators.

On Monday, 57 people were killed in clashes between the armyand Mursi supporters near a Cairo barracks. The army said it wasresponding to an attack; the Brotherhood called it a massacre.

Egypt's interim authorities have set out a "road map" torestore full civilian rule, with plans for a new constitutionand parliamentary elections in about six months, followed by apresidential vote. A judge has been named interim president andliberal economist Hazem el-Beblawi appointed prime minister.

He is trying to form a Cabinet likely to be made up mainlyof technocrats and liberals, without offending a largeultra-orthodox Islamist group that broke with the Brotherhood toaccept the military takeover.

By the end of Saturday, candidates for many of the keyministries had been identified, although they had yet to acceptthem and the decisions were not final.

Two senior interim government sources said Beblawi planned to offer the finance portfolio to Hany Kadri, who has overseen stalled loan talks with the International Monetary Fund, and the supplies ministry to Godah Abdel Khalik, a leftistpolitician who held the position briefly in 2011.

Another Christian, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, a liberal whopreviously served as tourism minister, will be invited to headthe investment ministry.

A former ambassador to Washington, Nabil Fahmy, will beoffered the foreign ministry, while General Abdel Fattahal-Sisi, who carried out the overthrow of Mursi, will retain thedefence portfolio as expected.

The United States refuses to say whether it considers thearmy takeover a "coup", which under U.S. law would require it tocut off aid including $1.3 billion a year in military support.

In recent days it has described Morsi's rule as undemocraticbecause of the vast popular protests against him, but also urgedthe authorities to release him and stop detaining his followers.Its wavering position has infuriated both sides.

Turmoil since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has wrecked Egypt's economy, scaring awaytourists and investors, draining hard currency reserves andmaking it difficult to import food and fuel, which thegovernment distributes at heavily subsidised prices.

Rich Gulf Arab states Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emiratesand Kuwait, happy at the overthrow of the Brotherhood, haveoffered Egypt $12 billion in cash, loans and fuel.

State news agency MENA said a shipment of 70,000 tonnes of diesel arrived in Alexandria on Saturday from Turkey and Sweden.