Mohammed Morsi grants himself sweeping new powers in wake of Gaza

Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi granted himself sweeping powers to oversee the country's political transition in the wake of his success in negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza.

By Richard Spencer and Magdy Samaan in Cairo

Daily Telegraph

Mr Morsi declared unilaterally that until a new constitution is decreed all presidential decisions would be immune from legal challenge.

"The president can issue any decision or measure to protect the revolution," said his statement, read out on television by his personal spokesman, Yasser Ali.

"The constitutional declarations, decisions and laws issued by the president are final and not subject to appeal."

The announcement caused outrage. Mohammed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who returned to Egyptito become a leader of the liberal opposition, accused Mr Morsi of declaring himself a "new pharaoh".

"Morsi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh," Mr ElBaradei said on Twitter. "A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences."

           

Mr Morsi's move was designed to short-cut a series of stalemates to Egypt's constitutional transition from the dictatorship of ex-President Hosni Mubarak.

The committee drawing up the new constitution, which is dominated by members of Islamist groups including Mr Morsi's own Muslim Brotherhood, is facing repeated challenges to its legality. His declaration nullifies those challenges, and extends by two months the time available for it to do its work.

He also announced the sacking of the chief prosecutor, Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, one of the last so-called "remnants" of the Mubarak regime. Mr Mahmoud's failure to win convictions against many of those alleged to be responsible for the shooting of protesters during and after last year's revolution has led to continuing protests, particularly this week, the anniversary of a particularly bloody demonstration.

Mr Morsi announced there would be retrials in many of those failed prosecutions, possibly including that of Mr Mubarak himself, who was sentenced to life for failing to stop the crackdown but who many opponents believe should have been found guilty of ordering it.

Protesters already gathering outside the interior ministry, the scene of bloody battles last year, denounced the move and shouted anti-Brotherhood slogans, echoing last year's chants. "The people want the downfall of the regime," they sang.

Mohammed Said, 50, an accountant, said : "This decision is a response to the Islamic trend not the people. He has given himself immunity and he has given the constitutent assembly immunity and he is attacking the judiciary's independence. He has just made himself a new Allah."

Mustafa Taha, 30, said: "I think the regime is authoritarian and it's an extension of the old regime. Nothing has changed."

Heba Morayef, of Human Rights Watch, said that important decisions like ordering retrials were overshadowed by the immunity Mr Morsi had granted himself. "Egypt needed judicial reform and the public prosecutor is a Mubarak holdover, but granting the president absolute power and immunity is not the way to do it," she said.

Mr Morsi is already seen as an ambiguous leader by Egypt's traditional western allies.

He won wide praise for his handling of ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Yet he has a track record of strong anti-Western sentiment, including once claiming that the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job".

The United States, which is now in regular contact with him, hopes that democratic restraints will force the Brotherhood into becoming a constructive economic and political partner in the Middle East. It is likely to seek private reassurances that the planned transition to new elections will be maintained.