Opposition leaders in Egypt have called for
large protests after President Mohammed Mursi passed a decree giving himself
sweeping new powers.
The decree states the president's decisions
cannot be revoked by any authority - including the judiciary.
It also opens the way for a retrial of
people convicted of killings during Egypt's 2011 uprising which toppled
President Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Mursi's critics have denounced the move
as a "coup against legitimacy".
In a joint news conference on Thursday,
Sameh Ashour, head of the lawyers syndicate, and key opposition figures Mohamed
ElBaradei and Amr Moussa accused Mr Mursi of "monopolising all three
branches of government" and overseeing "the total execution of the
independence of the judiciary".
"We are calling on all Egyptians to
protest in all of Egypt's squares on Friday," they said.
Mr ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner,
wrote on his Twitter account that the president had "appointed himself
Egypt's new pharaoh. A major blow to the revolution that could have dire
consequences".
He might be riding high in international
opinion because of his role helping to secure a ceasefire between Israel and
Gaza, but Egypt's President Mursi is still facing pressing domestic issues.
Mr Mursi's announcement that he is sacking
the unpopular public prosecutor - an appointee of his predecessor - and
ordering the retrial of leaders of Hosni Mubarak's regime - is an attempt to
satisfy the demands of the young "revolutionaries".
Yet many will be alarmed by the extensive
powers that the president has now granted himself - largely to see off ongoing
legal challenges.
The constituent assembly drawing up the new
constitution - which is dominated by Islamists and criticised by secular
political forces - is being given special protection to complete its work so
that Egypt has a new governing document and can proceed to new legislative
elections.
But of most concern is the line that Mr
Mursi's decisions "are final and cannot be contested". He starts to
sound more powerful than the autocratic leader that Egyptians rose up to
overthrow.
Wael Ghonim, a key figure in the uprising,
said the revolution had not been staged "in search of a benign
dictator".
"There is a difference between revolutionary
decisions and dictatorial decisions," he said.
But Mr Mursi's supporters say the move will
protect Egypt's revolution. Thousands celebrated the decree in front of the
Egyptian High Court in Cairo on Thursday night.
Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman for Mr Mursi's
Muslim Brotherhood party, described it as "revolutionary and
popular."
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says that
after brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas over the Gaza crisis, Mr
Mursi has won a new international prestige, and must believe this will help him
weather the domestic storm.
Mubarak retrial?
Mr Mursi said his decree was aimed at
"cleansing state institutions" and "destroying the
infrastructure of the old regime".
It bans challenges to his decrees, laws and
decisions, and says no court can dissolve the constituent assembly, which is
drawing up a new constitution.
Mr Mursi also sacked chief prosecutor Abdel
Maguid Mahmoud and ordered the retrial of people accused of attacking
protesters in the uprising, which could lead to the retrial of Mubarak himself,
who is serving a life sentence.
Mr Mahmoud's acquittal of officers accused
of involvement in attacks on protesters led to violent clashes in Cairo's
Tahrir Square in October, when supporters and opponents of Mr Mursi clashed.
Thousands of protesters have returned to
the streets around Tahrir Square over the past week demanding political reforms
and the prosecution of officials blamed for killing demonstrators.
The president had tried to remove Mr
Mahmoud from his post by appointing him envoy to the Vatican.
But Mr Mahmoud defied the Egyptian leader
and returned to work, escorted by judges and lawyers.
New prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim is tasked
with re-examining all the investigations led by Mr Mahmoud into the deaths of
protesters, and re-trying people already acquitted in the case.
The declaration also gives the 100-member
constituent assembly two additional months to draft a new constitution, to
replace the one suspended after Mr Mubarak was overthrown.
The rewrite of the constitution, which was
meant to be finished by December, has been plagued by lawsuits questioning the
make-up of the constituent assembly.
Once completed, the document is due to be
put to a referendum. If it is approved, legislative elections will be held two
months later.
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