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Egypt’s President Morsi Stands by His Overreaching Decrees: ‘Not Intended to Concentrate Power’

Nov. 26, 2012 7:20pm
Egypts President Morsi Stands by His Decrees: Not Intended to Concentrate Power

Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

CAIRO (TheBlaze/AP) — Egypt’s president told the country’s top judges Monday that he did not infringe on their authority when he seized near absolute powers, setting up a prolonged showdown on the eve of a mass protest planned by opponents of the Islamist leader.

An aide to President Mohammed Morsi said the decree was limited to “sovereignty-related issues,” but that did not satisfy his critics.

The uncompromising stance came during a meeting between Morsi and members of the Supreme Judiciary Council in a bid to resolve a four-day crisis that has plunged the country into a new round of turmoil with clashes between the two sides that have left one protester dead and hundreds wounded.

The judiciary, the main target of Morsi’s edicts, also has pushed back, calling the decrees a power grab and an “assault” on the branch’s independence. Judges and prosecutors stayed away from many courts in Cairo and other cities on Sunday and Monday.

A spokesman said Morsi told the judges that he acted within his right as the nation’s sole source of legislation when he issued decrees putting himself above judicial oversight. The president also extended the same immunity to two bodies dominated by his Islamist allies – a panel drafting a new constitution and parliament’s mostly toothless upper chamber.

The spokesman, Yasser Ali, also told reporters that Morsi assured the judges that the decrees did not in any way “infringe” on the judiciary and that they were “temporary,” limited only to “sovereignty-related issues” and were “not intended to concentrate power.”

Two prominent rights lawyers – Gamal Eid and Ahmed Ragheb – dismissed Ali’s remarks.

Eid said they were designed to keep “Morsi above the law,” while Ragheb said they amounted to “playing with words.”

“This is not what Egyptians are objecting to and protesting about. If the president wanted to resolve the crisis, there should be an amendment to his constitutional declaration.”

Ali’s comments signaled Morsi’s resolve not to back down or compromise on the constitutional amendments he announced last week, raising the likelihood of more violence. Both sides had planned competing rallies in Cairo on Tuesday, but the Brotherhood cancelled its rally late Monday, saying it wanted to reduce tension and congestion in the city.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Monday by telephone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr to “register American concerns about Egypt’s political situation,” according to spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Clinton, she said, stressed that the U.S. wanted to “see the constitutional process move forward in a way that does not overly concentrate power in one set of hands, that ensures that rule of law, checks and balances, protection of the rights of all groups in Egypt are upheld,” Nuland said.

Opposition activists have denounced Morsi’s decrees as a blatant power grab, and refused to enter a dialogue with the presidency before the edicts are rescinded. The president has vigorously defended the new powers, saying they are a necessary temporary measure to implement badly needed reforms and protect Egypt’s transition to democracy after last year’s ouster of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi says he wants to retain the new powers until the new constitution is adopted in a nationwide referendum and parliamentary elections are held, a time line that stretches to the middle of next year.

Many members of the judiciary were appointed under Mubarak, drawing allegations, even by some of Morsi’s critics, that they are trying to perpetuate the regime’s corrupt practices. But opponents are angry that the decrees leave Morsi without any check on his power.

Morsi, who became Egypt’s first freely elected president in June, was quoted by Ali as telling his prime minister and security chiefs earlier Monday that his decrees were designed to “end the transitional period as soon as possible.”

His comments appeared to run contrary to a prediction made earlier Monday by Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki that a resolution of the crisis was imminent. Mekki, who has been mediating between the judiciary and the presidency to try to defuse the crisis, did not give any details.

The dispute is the latest crisis to roil the Arab world’s most populous nation, which has faced mass protests, a rise in crime and economic woes since the initial euphoria following the popular uprising that ousted Mubarak after nearly 30 years of autocratic rule.

Morsi’s decrees were motivated in part by a court ruling in June that dissolved the parliament’s more powerful lower chamber known as the People’s Assembly, which was dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Islamists.

The verdict meant that legislative authority first fell in the hands of the then-ruling military, but Morsi grabbed it in August after he ordered the retirement of the army’s two top generals.

Morsi’s decrees, which were announced Thursday, saved the constitutional panel and the upper chamber from a fate similar to that of the People’s Assembly because several courts looking into the legal basis of their creation were scheduled to issue verdicts to disband them.

Ayman al-Sayyad, a member of Morsi’s 17-member advisory council, said the presidential aides asked the president in meetings over the weekend to negotiate a way out of the crisis and enter dialogue with all political forces to iron out differences over the nation’s new constitution.

Secular and Christian politicians have withdrawn from the 100-seat panel tasked with drafting the charter to protest what they call the hijacking of the process by Morsi’s Islamist allies. They fear the Islamists would produce a draft that infringes on the rights of liberals, women and the minority Christians.

The president, al-Sayyad added, would shortly take decisions that would spare the nation a “possible sea of blood.” He did not elaborate.

The dispute over the decrees, the latest in the country’s bumpy transition to democracy, has taken a toll on the nation’s already ailing economy. Egypt’s benchmark stock index dropped more than 9.5 percentage points on Sunday, the first day of trading since Morsi’s announcement. It fell again Monday during early trading but recovered to close up by 2.6 percentage points.

It has also played out in urban street protests across the country, including in the capital, Cairo, and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

Thousands gathered in Damanhoor for the funeral procession of 15-year-old Islam Abdel-Maksoud, who was killed Sunday when a group of anti-Morsi protesters tried to storm the local offices of the political arm of the president’s fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most powerful political group.

The Health Ministry said Monday that 444 people also have been wounded nationwide, including 49 who remain hospitalized, since the clashes erupted on Friday, according to a statement carried by the official news agency MENA.

Morsi’s office said in a statement that he had ordered the country’s top prosecutor to investigate the teenager’s death, along with that of another young man shot in Cairo last week during demonstrations to mark the anniversary of deadly protests last year that called for an end to the then-ruling military.

Up to 10,000 people marched through Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the uprising against Mubarak, for the funeral procession of 16-year-old Gaber Salah, who succumbed to his head wounds on Sunday. Salah was wounded in clashes with police in the capital during protests against the Brotherhood earlier last week, before the decrees were issued.

Mourners marched with the Salah’s body laid in a coffin wrapped in Egypt’s red, white and black flag from Tahrir to a cemetery east of the city. Already images of Salah have appeared on Tahrir’s walls. Underneath the images were the words: “Your blood will spark a new revolution.”

Salah was a member of April 6, one of the key right groups behind the anti-Mubarak uprising. He was also a founder of a Facebook group called “Against the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Also on Monday, Human Rights Watch said that Morsi’s decrees undermined the rule of law in Egypt and appeared to give him the power to issue emergency-style measures at any time for vague reasons. In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in thinly veiled criticism that the separation of powers was a fundamental principle of any democratic constitution.

Morsi, added spokesman Steffen Seibert, has a “great responsibility” to lead Egypt to a “democratically ordered political system” that rests on that principle.

—

Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Cairo, Robert H. Reid in Berlin and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

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Comments (28)

  • SilentReader
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 9:16pm

    Why are we giving money to this Muslim Brotherhood terrrorist-in-a-suit? Why? Because we have a bunch of cowards in Congress who will not hold any of these criminal collaborators with the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists in the White House accountable. They have allowed them to infiltrate our American government and impose their Sharia on us through the OIC criminals by Hillary Clinton’s signing UN Resolution 1618 on foreign soil thereby ignoring the US Constitution, the law of America! Can you say treason?

    Report this comment

    SilentReader  
  • blackbean
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:45pm

    And obama doesn’t protest? Morsi is one of his buddies, like chavez, and is showing him how to get it done here.

    Report this comment

    blackbean  
  • mycomet123
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 11:47am

    WOW!! Suprise, suprise you elect a terrorist & wonder why he acts the way he does!! Read Isaiah 19. I find it odd that there is not much news on Egypt today–someone must have shut the news broadcasters up!!

    Report this comment

    mycomet123  
  • bonesiii
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 9:26am

    It wasn’t intentional! It was an accident! It just happened man! Those powers… they just… yanno… slipped into my grasp! Someone put them up on the top shelf and I accidentally bumped it, and they just fell right off!

    Report this comment

    bonesiii  
  • Ironworker3366
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 5:36am

    To know someone you must first know who his friends are……… The Obama admin was in support of the Libyan Revolution/ Result-Abdel Rahin, The Egyptian Revolution/result- Hishom Morsie and isn’t doing anything about the Al-Assad massacre in Syria and isn’t doing anything about a Nuclear Iran He is bestie’s with the Abdullah Gul of Turkey. These Nations are in support of the Caliphate; and we are supposed to believe that this President isn’t out to do the USA wrong?

    Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and is doing his best to bring his friends here……

    Report this comment

    Ironworker3366  
  • tharpdevenport
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 1:26am

    First it’s “not intended to concentrate power.”

    Then it’s: “not intended to temporarily suspend elections.”

    Then: “not intended to stay supreme leader for so many years.”

    To: “not intended to kill THAT many opposition supporters — I just had to secure peace and stability and I had to do it quickly.”

    And finally: “Egpyt is Muslimbrotherhood. Jihad is our way. Death to Israel. Death to the American pigdog,” followed by a series of weapons strikes.

    Report this comment

    tharpdevenport  
  • plainolamerican
    Posted on November 27, 2012 at 1:07am

    Lets see a president that MANY believe was placed in office fraudulently that you hear, see and feel the effects of power moves to take control of the country. I could see why Obama can work with him…

    Report this comment

    plainolamerican  
  • universalphilos
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 11:05pm

    This prophecy was spoken January 27, 1978, before the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty: “And we shall say unto you, this one you call the leader of Egypt, this one you call your President, should light the fuse in Israel, if they are not stopped soon.”

    [Note: The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C. on the 26th of March 1979, following the September 17, 1978, Camp David Accords. In 1977-1978 U.S. President Jimmy Carter encouraged Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Began to sign a peace treaty in which Israel gave back 95-percent of the land it had won in a war with Egypt in 1967. This was given in exchange for peace. Although the Egyptian and Israeli leaders were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1978, radical militant religious fundamentalists in Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who thought Sadat to be a traitor to their cause to destroy Israel assassinated Sadat in 1981.
    The American-led negotiations to exchange β€œland for peace” began many agreements through coming years in which Israel gave up land to radical fundamentalist militants in the Palestinian area for peace. But peace was not returned to Israel. Suicide bombers and acts of terrorism increased, and military arms continue to build up around Israel. Those who promised peace in exchange for the land plan to destroy Israel, as the spiritual messengers of God warned. Were we being warned us of where this would lead, if we didn't change our path?]

    Report this comment

    universalphilos  
  • ConcernedforTX
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:58pm

    All about talking points. The sounds of the response make it seem as if Obama is a ‘mentor’ of his.

    Report this comment

    ConcernedforTX  
  • Chromo200
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:31pm

    Morsi is a muslim therefore he lies. Never ever trust a muslim even if you know them for a long time. They will turn on you real quick.

    Report this comment

    Chromo200  
  • paperpushermj
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:23pm

    WORDS EVERY NACENT DICTATOR SAYS:
    ___________________________________________.
    The president has vigorously defended the new powers, saying they are a necessary temporary measure to implement badly needed reforms and protect Egypt’s transition to democracy after last year’s ouster of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak.

    Report this comment

    paperpushermj  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:21pm

    There is a big difference between the words “intended” and “designed”.

    This power takeover is designed….

    …he probably called Valerie Obama and asked for advice from him on how he would proceed.

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
  • Stelex
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:17pm

    It amazes me how the UN, Obama, Liberals in general are using Islam to move there progressive movement. The Islamist movement is gaining strength by the minute. Obama, buds with the MB, the UN is buds with the MB. The EU is over run with Islam ……Islam is the tool. Like taking a sawsall to a room to erase what was there, and to remodel.

    Report this comment

    Stelex  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:05pm

    80 million, will a complete take over work here?

    A test for the coup of 330 million

    Report this comment

    Stoic one  
  • Netsurfer2
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:59pm

    Reminds me of Obama, when he asked the Russians if he could do what he wanted if he wins in the last election! Absolute power corrupts absolutely! As always, the truth will set you free! Berry just wants to cripple the US capabilities by going more and more into debt than ever before! More than a trillion per year and then what will he say, that we need a government approach in order to get out of this mess??? More people relying on government, more drug laws passing making it legal, less education, while larger government can only spell third a world coming to a place near you! Only the educated will survive and more than likely leave the USA all-together! I don’t blame them! I blame those who voted for revenge! Super Power no more, but powerless to the brink of collapse!

    Report this comment

    Netsurfer2  
    • oldguy49
      Posted on November 26, 2012 at 8:15pm

      first the muslim brotherhood was not going to have a canadate in the game……now that their non-existant canadate won they don’t want absolute power……..all the while women are raped and christians are murdered and yep …………..they even has been talk about destroying the idol worshipers pyramids……………..

      Report this comment

      oldguy49  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:54pm

    Absolute power corrupts absolutely….

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:45pm

    Here we see yet one more massive failure by Obama and his madness that grows by the day; look well for in Morsi we have the future of America under Obama.

    Report this comment

    Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • possom
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:38pm

    ! give it a couple of weeks and we’ll get to watch a new civil war!

    Report this comment

    possom  
  • AmericaMustBeFree
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:36pm

    These people lie repeatedly.. I would never trust Morsi.. as I don’t trust our president! Evil is evil!

    Report this comment

    AmericaMustBeFree  
  • ginger100
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:33pm

    What did you expect? 4 year term limits?

    Report this comment

    ginger100  
  • dean_buvia
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:32pm

    Obama’s Arab Spring is alive & well.

    Bush’s fault!

    Report this comment

    dean_buvia  
  • progressiveslayer
    Posted on November 26, 2012 at 7:31pm

    Yeah and Barry will be saying the same thing as his friend Morsi in four years. I didn’t intend to seize absolute power when I suspended the constitution because of the civil war but I had to maintain law and order.

    Report this comment

    progressiveslayer  

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