One dead as Egypt police disperse protests in Cairo and Alexandria
Ahram Online, Thursday 3 Jul 2014
At least one pro-Morsi protester is killed in Giza as security forces disperse demonstrations; more than 16 protesters arrested in Alexandria


At least one pro-Morsi protester was killed and a number of others injured in Thursday afternoon clashes between security forces and protesters in Giza's Al-Haram Street, reported Al-Ahram's Arabic news website.

Egyptian police forces dispersed protests by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Giza and Alexandria on Thursday, the day marking the anniversary of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster from power.

In Giza's Al-Haram Avenue, teargas was fired by police forces, heavily deployed in the street, dispersing the protesters and leaving at least one of them killed.

The same scene occurred on Sudan Street in Giza's Mohandessin district and in Cairo's Matariya district, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic news website. No casualties have been reported from these protest sites, however.

In Alexandria, 16 protesters were arrested in the city's Attarin district, while a number of demonstrators were apprehended in two other of the coastal city's districts; their numbers have not yet been released, said Al-Ahram.

The Brotherhood-led National Alliance to Support Legitimacy had declared the 3 July anniversary of Morsi's ouster a "day of rage" and called for protests across Egypt.

Morsi was ousted by the military on 3 July 2013 amid mass protests against his troubled one-year rule. The army along with national and religious leaders announced a Road Map for the Future to outline transitional electoral steps in post-Brotherhood Egypt.

In the fall of 2013, a 50-member committee appointed by Egypt's post-Morsi interim-president Adly Mansour amended the Islamist-written 2012 constitition. A referendum in January 2014 approved the amended charter by 98 percent. Presidential elections followed in May 2014 sending army chief Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to Egypt's presidential palace after he resoundly defeated leftist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi in a two-way race. Parliamentary elections, the last step in the Road Map agreed upon by non-Brotherhood forces, are slated for later this summer.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies have refused to recognise the legitimacy of the Road Map process insisting Morsi, who was elected in June 2012 in the country's first post-Mubarak democratic elections, is still the legitimate president.

A crackdown by the authorities against two pro-Morsi sit-ins in August 2013 left hundreds dead. Meanwhile, attacks by Islamists against army and police personnel have left more than 500 officers and soldiers dead.

Mass arrests of Brotherhood supporters has left most of the group's leadership in exile or in jail as in the case of Morsi facing trials on charges of inciting murder and killing police personnel.

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