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Morsi supporters sentenced to 17 years for Al-Azhar protest in Egypt

An Egyptian court sentenced 12 supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi to 17 years in prison for taking part in a violent student-led protest, state media reported. The official MENA news agency reported that the protesters were convicted of attacking the headquarters of the Islamic Al-Azhar institution during the protest. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement said on its website that all those sentenced were students at Al-Azhar’s university. The men were arrested after protesters in October tried to storm Al-Azhar’s head office, which supported the military’s overthrow of Morsi. The men will be allowed to post 64,000 Egyptian pounds ($9,300) bail while they appeal the sentences. More than 1,000 people, most of them Morsi supporters or opponents of  the military-led coup, have been killed in clashes with police since he was removed in July. Thousands have been arrested, with many going to trial. Fourteen suspected Morsi supporters who were on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt relies on Gulf aid for economy: Then what?

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is engaged in a high stakes gamble, using billions of dollars from Gulf Arab allies to stimulate the economy and keep its politically charged streets calm in the hope that investors and tourists will return. The biggest Arab country’s finances are in a precarious state with a massive deficit but the government, armed with billions of Gulf petrodollars, has rejected the conventional wisdom of IMF-prescribed austerity measures. If the plan fails, a new government expected to be elected early next year could find itself deep in debt, its currency overvalued and an economy in crisis. "Now we are living on a ventilator, (with) aid from neighboring countries and that is understandable in the midst of a meager tourism industry and reluctance of direct foreign investment," Sherif Samy, Egypt’s Financial Supervisory Authority head, said. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates pledged more than $12 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egypt turns to Russia as relations with Washington sour

The Russian foreign and defence ministers will travel to Egypt next week on a visit seen as signalling a growing rapprochement between the two countries as the military-backed authorities in Cairo reach out for new allies and seek to lessen dependence on Washington. A Russian official spokesman said that Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, will discuss issues touching on “military and technical co-operation” – seen as a Russian euphemism for arms sales. Cairo’s relations with Washington , its primary aid donor and military supplier for four decades, have frayed since the coup in July, which ousted the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected president. As tensions with Washington increased over the summer culminating in a US decision to withhold part of its annual $1.3bn in military aid, Egyptian officials started to hint that their country would seek a realignment in its foreign relations. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Deposed Egypt president Mohamed Morsi defiant as trial adjourned

Morsi supporters gather outside Cairo Police Academy on November 4, 2013. Mohamed Morsi and other defendants arrived to the Police Academy, for their trial in the east of Cairo on November 4,2013. Protesters, raised Egypt’s ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi , on Monday defiantly insisted he was the country’s legitimate leader as his trial for inciting violence got off to a raucous start at a heavily-guarded police academy on the outskirts of Cairo. Rejecting the proceedings against him as “cover for a coup”, the former president repeatedly interrupted the presiding judge, who adjourned the hearing when Mr Morsi tried to demand a special trial in accordance with procedures for the impeachment of a president set out in the suspended 2012 constitution. “I am Dr Mohamed Morsi, the president of the republic, and I am present here by force and against my will. The coup is criminal and treasonable,” he […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egyptian police use teargas on protests in Alexandria and Suez

CAIRO (Reuters) – Police used teargas on Friday to disperse demonstrations by supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, and in Suez. Mursi’s supporters have staged frequent protests in towns and cities across Egypt, many of them following Friday prayers, since the army deposed him on July 3 in response to mass protests against his rule. In Suez, police fired tear gas to disperse around 4,000 pro-Mursi demonstrators, a local witness said. And in Alexandria, around 1,000 demonstrators backing Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood blocked the Corniche, the main road along the Mediterranean seafront, and chanted slogans against the army and police, a witness said. Residents and drivers threw stones at the demonstrators to try to force them to let traffic through, which triggered clashes. Police responded by firing teargas to disperse the crowds. Two people were arrested, the witness said. Residents and pro-Mursi […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple