Port Said clashes (Photo: facebook.com/RevSoc.PTS)
Thousands took part in the funeral of a man in Port Said on Monday, who were killed during clashes between protesters and the Egyptian police in the Suez Canal city the day before.
Clashes broke out Sunday as police fired intense rounds of teargas throughout the day at demonstrators who opposed an interior ministry decision to transfer 39 prisoners from Port Said to Wadi Natroun prison in Beheira governorate, on the other side of the Nile Delta.
The prisoners are detained on charges related to the violence at Port Said stadium in February 2012, when over 70 Ahly football club fans were killed.
Mourners who carried the body through the streets of the city chanted against the interior ministry as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which President Mohamed Morsi hails.
Sunday's clashes also led to the death of another civilian and two police conscripts, according to the health ministry. Over 500 were injured, according to ministry sources, 300 suffering from teargas asphyxiation, 43 from gunshot wounds (four policemen and 40 civilians) and 20 from miscellaneous injuries.
This comes ahead of the expected second phase of the Port Said trial scheduled for 9 March, where the 52 remaining defendants out of the total 73 will be issued verdicts. Twenty-one defendants were issued with death sentences in the first set of verdicts.
Thousands of Port Said residents have been conducting a campaign of civil disobedience during the past two weeks to protest marginalisation policies at the hands of the central government and to demand justice for those killed in recent clashes.
Several media outlets gave conflicting reports of police and army soldiers exchanging fire at the end of the tense day. Egyptian armed forces official Spokesperson Colonel Ahmed Ali denied the reports on his Facebook page Sunday night.
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