Morsi’s decree sparks rival rallies in Egypt

Morsi’s decree sparks rival rallies in Egypt

CAIRO — A decree by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi granting himself extensive new powers triggered dueling demonstrations Friday by supporters and opponents.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square to denounce the move, chanting “Leave! Leave!” and comparing Morsi to ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, whose 30-year rule was ended by Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising last year. Several miles away, members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement rallied in front of the presidential palace to show support for the country’s first democratically elected president.

State television reported that offices of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party were torched in several cities by protesters angry at Morsi’s decree Thursday, which exempted his decisions from judicial review and ordered retrials for former top officials, including Mubarak.

The decree, issued a day after Morsi won international praise for fostering a cease-firein the Gaza Strip, appears to leave few if any checks on his power. The president said all of the decisions he has made since he took office in June — and until a new constitution is adopted and a parliament elected — were final and not subject to appeal or review.

The announcement, read on state television by Morsi’s spokesman and broadcast repeatedly with accompanying nationalistic songs, shocked many in this struggling country, and street protests quickly erupted.

In the port city of Alexandria, protesters stormed the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters Friday, threw books and chairs into the street and set them on fire, Reuters news agency reported. It said supporters and opponents of the president also threw rocks at each other near a mosque in Alexandria.

In Geneva, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Morsi’s decree raises serious concerns.

“We are very concerned about the possible huge ramifications of this declaration on human rights and the rule of law in Egypt,” Rupert Colville told reporters Friday. “We also fear this could lead to a very volatile situation over the next few days, starting today in fact.”

Morsi’s broad assertion of control came less than 24 hours after a diplomatic triumph inarranging the cease-fire in Gaza had given new credence to Morsi’s international bona fides. And it raised questions about whether Egypt might be headed to a return of its Mubarak-era arrangement on the world stage: a country praised for bringing stability to a volatile region and tolerated for abusing rights at home.

Muslim Brotherhood officials, with whom Morsi is allied, said the measures were necessary to ensure the country’s full and healthy return to democracy.

“This level of immunity for presidential decrees is indeed unprecedented, but it is necessary, and it is controlled by a time frame” that ends with the election of a new parliament, said Gehad el-Haddad, a senior Muslim Brotherhood adviser. “This constitutional declaration cements the way forward in terms of time frame and powers.”

But the decision raised immediate concerns among many liberal activists who had already been worried that Morsi had taken a distinctly authoritarian air in the three months since he swept out the top ranks of the military and sidelined what had long been a powerful independent institution in Egypt. Egypt’s short-lived parliament was dismissed by the country’s high court shortly before Morsi took power, so legislative powers also are concentrated under the president. Taking the courts out of the equation means there will be no judicial review of Morsi’s decisions.