Egyptians gather to mark uprising anniversary

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian opposition protesters are gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's autocratic regime.

The protesters, mostly led by liberals and secularists, are using the anniversary to stage a show of strength in a bid to force President Mohammed Morsi to amend a disputed constitution drafted by his Islamist allies. They are also demanding freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to turn out for the rallies planned in Cairo and several major cities. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups are staying off the streets to avoid clashes.

Friday's rallies come a day after opposition protesters battled police for hours near Tahrir. The clashes injured scores of opposition protesters.

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Egyptians protest on 2nd anniversary of revolution

CAIRO (AP) — Two years after Egypt's revolution began, the country's schism was on display Friday as the mainly liberal and secular opposition held giant rallies saying the goals of the pro-democracy uprising have not been met and denouncing Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

Thousands of protesters filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square, where the January 2011 uprising was born, and the area outside the presidential palace in the city's Heliopolis district. Throughout these places, the iconic Arab Spring chants of "Erha! Erhal!" or "leave, leave" and "the people want to topple the regime" rang out.

The protesters are using the anniversary to stage a show of strength in a bid to force Morsi to amend a disputed constitution drafted by his Islamist allies. They are also demanding freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary.

Smaller crowds also gathered in central squares in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Port Said as well as the Nile Delta city of Mehalla and Suez at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal.

Clashes broke out for a second day on some sidestreets near Tahrir and police fired tear gas to disperse the young men throwing stones. There were also clashes in Alexandria.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters opted not to mark the anniversary on the streets, arguing that they will honor the occasion with acts of public service, like treating the sick and planting trees, a tactic dismissed by the opposition as a public relations stunt ahead of parliamentary elections expected in April.

The Brotherhood's ultraconservative allies known as Salafis also said they would stay off the streets to avoid clashes.

The anniversary of the revolution comes as Egypt faces a new phase in its upheaval: Ruling Islamists trying to push through their agenda, an opposition trying to break their lock on power, and an economy in free-fall that threatens to fuel public discontent.

At the heart of the country's political divide is a disputed constitution drafted by Morsi's allies without the participation of liberals or minority Christians, what the opposition sees as a bid by Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood to take control of all state institutions and the president's meddling in the judiciary.

"I am asking everyone to go out and demonstrate to show that the revolution must be completed and that the revolution must continue," opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said in a televised message posted on his party's website. "There must be a constitution for all Egyptians. A constitution that every one of us sees himself in it," said the Nobel peace Laureate and former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, IAEA.

New militia-like groups opposed to the Islamists have declared in video messages posted on social networks this week their intention to defend the opposition protesters if attacked. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds injured when Morsi's supporters descended upon protesters camped outside his palace in December, starting clashes that lasted for hours with firebombs, swords, knifes and firearms.

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Egyptians go to polls on controversial constitution

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Egyptians vote on Islamist-backed constitution

CAIRO (AP) — With their nation's future at stake, Egyptians lined up Saturday to vote on a draft constitution after weeks of turmoil that have left them deeply divided between Islamist supporters of the charter and those who fear it will usher in religious rule.

The referendum caps a nearly two-year struggle over the post-revolutionary identity of Egypt after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime.

The vote has turned into a dispute over whether Egypt should move toward a religious state under President Mhoammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and ultraconservative Salafi allies, or one that retains secular traditions and an Islamic character. But many Egyptians said they were mainly looking for stability.

Many also fear the newly empowered Muslim Brotherhood and more ultraconservative Islamists are taking advantage of their current political dominance to adopt a charter that will be nearly impossible to amend.

According to the draft, articles 217 and 218 state that the president and parliament have the right to make a "request" to "amend an article or more," then parliament must discuss the request within 30 days. Two thirds of parliament members are needed to pass the request. Then parliament has 60 days to finalize the amended articles, and a third of parliament is needed to pass the final text before putting them to a national referendum.

Highlighting the tension in the run-up to the vote, nearly 120,000 army troops were deployed on Saturday to protect polling stations. Clashes between Morsi's supporters and opponents over the past three weeks have left at least 10 people dead and about 1,000 wounded.

"The times of silence are over," bank employee Essam el-Guindy said as he waited to cast his ballot in Cairo's upscale Zamalek district. "I am not OK with the constitution. Morsi should not have let the country split like this."

El-Guindy was one of about 20 men standing in line. A separate women's line had twice as many people. Elsewhere in the city, hundreds of voters waited outside polling stations for nearly two hours before stations opened at 8 a.m.

"I read parts of the constitution and saw no reason to vote against it," said Rania Wafik as she held her newborn baby while waiting in line. "We need to move on and I just see no reason to vote against the constitution."

Morsi, whose narrow win in June made him Egypt's first freely elected president, cast his ballot at a school in the upscale Heliopolis district. He did not speak to reporters, but waved to dozens of supporters who were chanting his name outside.

In Cairo's crowded Sayedah Zeinab district, home to a revered Muslim shrine, 23-year-old engineer Mohammed Gamal said he was voting "yes" although he felt the proposed constitution needed more, not less, Islamic content.

"Islam has to be a part of everything," said Gamal, who wore the mustache-less beard that is a hallmark of hard-line Salafi Muslims. "All laws have to be in line with Shariah," he said, referring to Islamic law.

Critics are questioning the charter's legitimacy after the majority of judges said they would not supervise the vote. Rights groups have also warned of opportunities for widespread fraud, and the opposition says a decision to hold the vote on two separate days to make up for the shortage of judges leaves the door open for initial results to sway voter opinion.

The shortage of judges was reflected in the chaos engulfing some polling stations, which by early afternoon had led the election commission to extend voting by two hours until 9 p.m.

Mohammed Ahmed, a retired army officer from Cairo, said bearded men he suspects of being Muslim Brotherhood members were whispering "vote yes" to men standing in line outside a polling center in Cairo's poor district of Arab el-Maadi.

"The Brotherhood wants to turn Egypt into its own fiefdom," he said. "I have no confidence in the whole process and I know they will be able to forge the results," he said.

In Cairo's Darb el-Ahmar, judge Mohammed Ibrahim appeared overwhelmed with the flow of voters, many of whom had to wait for close to two hours to cast their ballots. "I'm trying hard here, but responsibilities could have been better distributed," he said.

Egypt has 51 million eligible voters, half of whom are supposed to cast their ballots Saturday and the rest next week. Saturday's vote is held in 10 provinces, including Cairo and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the country's second largest and scene of violent clashes on Friday between opponents and supporters of Morsi.

"I am definitely voting no," Habiba el-Sayed, a 49-year-old house wife who wears the Muslim veil, or hijab, said in Alexandria. "Morsi took wrong decisions and there is no stability. They (Islamists) are going around calling people infidels. How can there be stability?"

Another female voter in Alexandria, 22-year-old English teacher Yomna Hesham said she was voting 'no' because the draft is "vague" and ignores women's rights.

"I don't know why we have become so divided ...now no one wants to look in the other's face," said Hesham, who also wears the hijab, after voting. "This will not end well either way. It is so sad that we have come to this."

Another newspaper, the pro-opposition al-Watan, published photographs of Morsi's supporters in Alexandria armed with knives, swords and sticks on the front page of its Saturday edition. "A referendum on their constitution," read the headline, alluding to the Islamists.

Egypt's latest crisis, the worst since Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February 2011, began when Morsi issued a decree on Nov. 22 giving himself and the assembly writing the draft immunity from judicial oversight so the document could be finalized before an expected court ruling dissolving the panel.

On Nov. 30, the document was passed by an assembly composed mostly of Islamists, in a marathon session despite a walkout by secular activists and Christians from the 100-member panel.

If the constitution is approved by a simple majority of voters, the Islamists empowered when Mubarak was ousted would gain even more clout. The current upper house of parliament, dominated by Islamists, would be given the authority to legislate until a new parliament is elected.

If it is defeated, elections would be held within three months for a new panel to write a new constitution. In the meantime, legislative powers would remain with Morsi.

The opposition has called on its supporters to vote "no," while Morsi's supporters say the constitution will help end the political instability that has roiled Egypt since the autocratic Mubarak was overthrown. Clerics, from the pulpits of mosques, have defended the constitution as a document that champions Islam.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei wrote Saturday on his Twitter account: "Listen to your conscience and the voice of reason and say 'no.'"

Morsi's opponents say minority concerns have been ignored and the charter is full of obscurely worded clauses that could allow the ruling Islamists to restrict civil liberties, ignore women's rights and undermine labor unions.

"At one point in our history, Cleopatra, a woman, ruled Egypt. Now you have a constitution that makes women not even second-class but third-class citizens," said businesswoman Olivia Ghita. "This constitution is tailored for one specific group (the Muslim Brotherhood). It's a shame. I am very upset."

___

El Deeb reported from Alexandria, Egypt. AP writer Maggie Michael contributed to this report.

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Is Morsi a president for all Egyptians, or just Brothers?

Mohamed Omar was taking supplies to a field hospital treating opposition protesters injured in deadly clashes with supporters of President Mohamed Morsi last week when suddenly the front line shifted. The president's supporters surrounded and grabbed him.

"They began beating me with sticks, knocking my face with their fists, and hitting me with metal on my head," he says. The crowd took his wallet, phone, car keys, and identity card, and continued beating him as they dragged him toward the presidential palace nearby. "People were beating me along the way, asking me 'why are you protesting the president?', accusing me of being an enemy of the country, saying I am an enemy of the president."

Once near the walls of the palace, they bound his hands, and then interrogated him, demanding to know which Egyptian opposition leader had paid him to protest. "Are you a dog of Hamdeen Sabbahi or are you a dog of Amr Moussa or of ElBaradei?" he remembers them asking.

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Along with 48 others, he was held, bloodied and bound, outside the gates of the presidential palace by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood for around 15 hours, until he was turned over to police.

Controversy is now growing over what happened in the wake of those deadly clashes, which killed 11 people, most of whom appear to have been Muslim Brotherhood members or supporters. In an address shortly after they were handed to the police, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi echoed the Brotherhood narrative of events, claiming confessions of paid thugs, and did not call for an investigation of the detentions and abuse. Some Egyptians say the events reinforce the growing perception that the president is too close to the Brotherhood, and is losing his ability to be a leader for all Egyptians.

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S ROLE

Human Rights Watch released a statement yesterday calling on Egypt's public prosecutor to investigate the detentions and beatings, and the possible links to authorities.

The president must have been aware of what was happening for 15 hours outside the gates of his palace, where Ministry of Interior officials were present and aware of the detentions and abuse, says Heba Morayef, Egypt director for Human Rights Watch. "Yet in his speech he not only made no reference to this, but actually spoke out against people who were at that point were still being investigated and therefore covered by the presumption of innocence," she says.

His actions, particularly regarding the role of the public prosecutor, have dangerous implications, she says. "It puts us in an extremely dangerous position. Because if the public prosecutor is now seen as a pro-Morsi, politicized figure, then that further destroys what little respect there is left for these institutions as being the objective, rule-of-law-applying bodies in the country."

The prosecutor's role in events has also become controversial. The president appointed the public prosecutor, Talaat Abdallah, as part of a sweeping decree that sacked the Mubarak-era prosecutor, sidelined the judiciary, and made his own powers immune to judicial review. Mr. Abdallah today reversed a decision to transfer the local prosecutor who ordered the release of the prisoners detained by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm reported the local prosecutor accused Abdallah of ordering his transfer as a punitive measure after he refused Abdallah's pressure to charge some of the protesters with crimes.

BROTHERS CALLED UP

The clashes last week were some of the deadliest this year. Protesters against the president had gathered at his presidential palace on Dec. 4 to protest his decision to grant himself immunity from judicial review, and to call a quick referendum on a controversial draft constitution. Some stayed overnight, camping out beside the palace.

On Dec. 5, Muslim Brotherhood leaders called on their followers to march to the presidential palace. Essam El Erian, the deputy chief of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, called on members to go to the palace, implying that if police would not protect it, FJP and Brotherhood members would do so themselves. "If state agencies are weak and still damaged by the wounds of the past, the people can impose their will and protect legitimacy. Members of the FJP will be on the frontline, God-willing," he posted on his public Facebook page.

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The president's supporters pushed out the protesters who had camped beside the palace, and dismantled their tents. Clashes between the two sides began that afternoon.

Brotherhood adviser Gehad al Haddad, who was present during the clashes, says during the night there was a vicious attack on the president's supporters carried out by "thugs" armed with guns, and that police did nothing to stop the violence. HRW says in its report that both sides were armed. The Brotherhood says all of the 11 deaths were either Brotherhood members or people who were on the Brotherhood side of the clashes, though the opposition disputes that.

During the clashes, Brotherhood members and supporters began capturing protesters from the other side. According to Mr. Haddad, they were capturing the armed thugs who had attacked them. Multiple protesters said they were apprehended by the president's supporters, who beat them, bound them, and then detained 49 of them in an area in front of the gate to the presidential palace, where they interrogated them. The questions aimed at extracting confessions of being paid by opposition leaders to attack the Brotherhood.

ORDEAL OF THOSE NABBED

Ramy Sabry, a pharmacist, says he was at the protest to provide medical aid to those hurt in the fighting. He was on the opposition side of the chaotic clashes around 1 a.m. on the morning of Dec 6. when a group of Morsi supporters captured him. They grabbed him and pushed him all the way to the presidential palace, which took about 10 minutes, he says.

"On the way, I was attacked by everything they carried. Some had wooden sticks, some metal rods, someone had a knife because I have a cut on my face. They beat me the entire way there until I reached the palace. Then they tied me up."

Mr. Sabry says there were around 10 or 15 other captured protesters in an area cordoned off by riot police when he arrived, but their numbers swelled to 49 by the afternoon. "They tried to make me confess I got money from ElBaradei or Hamdeen to attack them and the palace," he says, referring to two opposition leaders and former presidential candidates who joined an opposition coalition against the president's recent moves. "I insisted that I am not getting any money. I am here because I am against the constitutional decree, and I have the right to protest."

When he would not confess, they left him and tried the same tactics on the other bound protesters, slapping them and kicking them while questioning them, he says. Several of those detained were children, he says. After around ten hours, his captors agreed to tie his hands in front of his body instead of behind his back, because he was in great pain, he says

Sabry described those doing the interrogations as Freedom and Justice Party members, and says he recognized two of them and gave their names. He says one of them talked about a phone call with Mohamed El Beltagi, a prominent member of the party. In a separate interview, Omar also described overhearing one of the men who held him on the phone with Mr. Beltagi.

Beltagi could not be reached for comment.

Video footage confirms what the protesters describe, and shows handcuffed and bloodied protesters being interrogated. All the 49 who were held outside the presidential palace were handed over to police and prosecutors in the late afternoon of Dec. 6, joining dozens of others who had been handed over to police by the president's supporters. By Saturday, 137 had been released for lack of evidence, while four remained in custody.

MORSI'S COMMENTS

According to the HRW report, Morsi's prerecorded speech, in which he mentions confessions, was broadcast as the protesters were still being questioned by prosecutors, and lawyers present said none of them confessed in those interviews. In his speech, the president said "Sadly, some of those arrested have work and communication ties to political forces. And some of those using weapons were hired to do so, in exchange for a payment of money. This is what the investigations revealed, based on their confessions."

HRW urged the prosecutor to examine possible links between the detentions and the authorities. The report also noted a statement made by the Brotherhood's lawyer, on Dec. 6, saying "83 thugs were arrested with money, knives, and Molotov cocktails.… They admitted causing riots and killing and injuring hundreds of [the president'] supporters…. We have clear-cut and documented evidence that proves major politicians and media figures incited the violence."

The Information Minister, a Brotherhood member, also repeated the accusations in the state daily Al Ahram, citing "documents and evidence confiscated from dozens of thugs in front of the presidential palace."

Haddad says that the president's supporters were catching armed thugs and handing them over to police, amid a vicious attack on the Brotherhood members and supporters that he says killed ten of them. "I saw people being taken from the front lines. They were attackers. They had weapons," he says. Brotherhood members often intervened to stop beatings of those caught, he says.

He defends the Brotherhood's decision to send its followers to the palace, a call observers predicted would end in violence.

"At the end of the day this was a carefully designed coup by a few thugs that were hired by previous members of the Mubarak regime," says Haddad, adding that prominent members of the opposition are connected to the attacks as well. He could not provide evidence to back up his accusations.

"The Muslim Brotherhood came down as a human shield to prevent a bloodier confrontation between the presidential guard and the rest of the supporters," says Haddard. He says the Brotherhood followers had to protect the palace, because the police, loyal to Mubarak's regime and hostile to the Brotherhood, would not do so. "The objective of the Muslim Brotherhood was to protect the sovereignty of the state against an organized coup led by former Mubarak cronies."

Protesters who were detained and beaten say the episode makes them feel Morsi is Brotherhood president, not a leader of all Egyptians. When Morsi won the presidential elections, Omar told his friends that they should give him a chance to prove himself for a year. If he proved to be a good president, he would support him, he says.

But from the moment the president addressed his supporters in front of his palace after his recent decree, instead of giving an address to all Egyptians on television, Omar began to feel the president was not his president, he says. After what happened to him last week, he's more determined than ever to oppose Morsi. "I will not surrender, I will not give up," he says.

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Egyptians vote on divisive constitution

CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Egyptians queued to vote on Saturday on a constitution promoted by its Islamist backers as the way out of a prolonged political crisis and rejected by opponents as a recipe for further divisions in the Arab world's biggest nation.

Soldiers joined police to secure the referendum after deadly protests during the buildup. Street brawls erupted again on Friday in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, but voting proceeded quietly there, with no reports of violence elsewhere.

President Mohamed Mursi provoked angry demonstrations when he issued a decree last month expanding his powers and then fast-tracked the draft constitution through an assembly dominated by his Muslim Brotherhood group and its allies. At least eight people were killed in clashes last week outside the presidential palace.

The liberal, secular and Christian opposition says the constitution is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights. Mursi's supporters say the charter is needed if progress is to be made towards democracy nearly two years after the fall of military-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak.

"The sheikhs (preachers) told us to say 'yes' and I have read the constitution and I liked it," said Adel Imam, a 53-year-old queuing to vote in a Cairo suburb. "The president's authorities are less than before. He can't be a dictator."

Opposition politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on Twitter: "Adoption of (a) divisive draft constitution that violates universal values and freedoms is a sure way to institutionalize instability and turmoil."

Official results will not be announced until after a second round of voting next Saturday. But partial results and unofficial tallies are likely to emerge soon after the first round, giving an idea of the overall trend.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of voters who cast ballots. A little more than half of Egypt's electorate of 51 million are eligible to vote in the first round in Cairo and other cities.

TRANSITION

Christians, making up about 10 percent of Egypt's 83 million people and who have long grumbled of discrimination, were among those waiting at a polling station in Alexandria to oppose the basic law. They fear Islamists, long repressed by Mubarak, will restrict social and other freedoms.

"I voted 'no' to the constitution out of patriotic duty," Michael Nour, a 45-year-old Christian teacher in Alexandria. "The constitution does not represent all Egyptians," he said.

Islamists are counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and the many Egyptians who may fall into line in a desperate bid to end turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt's pound to eight-year lows against the dollar.

"I voted 'yes' for stability," said shopkeeper Ahmed Abou Rabu, 39. "I cannot say all the articles of the constitution are perfect but I am voting for a way forward. I don't want Egyptians to go in circles, for ever lost in this transition."

Mursi was among the early voters after polls opened at 8 a.m. (1:00 a.m. Eastern Time). He was shown on television casting his ballot shielded by a screen and then dipping his finger in ink - a measure to prevent people voting twice.

One senior official in the committee overseeing the referendum said Saturday's vote could extend to Sunday if crowds were too heavy to allow everyone cast ballots in one day. Voting for Egyptians abroad that began on Wednesday has been extended to Monday, the state news agency reported.

After weeks of turbulence, there has been limited public campaigning. Opposition politicians and parties, beaten in two elections since Mubarak's overthrow, only announced on Wednesday they backed a "no" vote instead of a boycott.

Flag-waving Islamists gathered peacefully at one of the main mosques on Friday, some shouting "Islam, Islam" and "We've come here to say 'yes' to the constitution".

PALACE SIT-IN

Opposition supporters assembled outside the presidential palace, where there has been a sit-in for days. The walls of the palace, ringed by tanks, are scrawled with anti-Mursi graffiti.

The referendum will be held on two days covering different regions, with the second round on December 22, because there are not enough judges willing to monitor all polling stations after some in the judiciary said they would boycott the vote.

Egyptians are being asked to accept or reject a constitution that must be in place before a parliamentary election can be held next year to replace an Islamist-led parliament dissolved this year. Many hope this will lead Egypt towards stability.

If the constitution is voted down, a new assembly will have to be formed to draft a revised version, a process that could take up to nine months.

The army has deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings. While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened in the present crisis.

(Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Is Morsi a president for all Egyptians, or just Brothers?

Mohamed Omar was taking supplies to a field hospital treating opposition protesters injured in deadly clashes with supporters of President Mohamed Morsi last week when suddenly the front line shifted. The president's supporters surrounded and grabbed him.

"They began beating me with sticks, knocking my face with their fists, and hitting me with metal on my head," he says. The crowd took his wallet, phone, car keys, and identity card, and continued beating him as they dragged him toward the presidential palace nearby. "People were beating me along the way, asking me 'why are you protesting the president?', accusing me of being an enemy of the country, saying I am an enemy of the president."

Once near the walls of the palace, they bound his hands, and then interrogated him, demanding to know which Egyptian opposition leader had paid him to protest. "Are you a dog of Hamdeen Sabbahi or are you a dog of Amr Moussa or of ElBaradei?" he remembers them asking.

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Along with 48 others, he was held, bloodied and bound, outside the gates of the presidential palace by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood for around 15 hours, until he was turned over to police.

Controversy is now growing over what happened in the wake of those deadly clashes, which killed 11 people, most of whom appear to have been Muslim Brotherhood members or supporters. In an address shortly after they were handed to the police, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi echoed the Brotherhood narrative of events, claiming confessions of paid thugs, and did not call for an investigation of the detentions and abuse. Some Egyptians say the events reinforce the growing perception that the president is too close to the Brotherhood, and is losing his ability to be a leader for all Egyptians.

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S ROLE

Human Rights Watch released a statement yesterday calling on Egypt's public prosecutor to investigate the detentions and beatings, and the possible links to authorities.

The president must have been aware of what was happening for 15 hours outside the gates of his palace, where Ministry of Interior officials were present and aware of the detentions and abuse, says Heba Morayef, Egypt director for Human Rights Watch. "Yet in his speech he not only made no reference to this, but actually spoke out against people who were at that point were still being investigated and therefore covered by the presumption of innocence," she says.

His actions, particularly regarding the role of the public prosecutor, have dangerous implications, she says. "It puts us in an extremely dangerous position. Because if the public prosecutor is now seen as a pro-Morsi, politicized figure, then that further destroys what little respect there is left for these institutions as being the objective, rule-of-law-applying bodies in the country."

The prosecutor's role in events has also become controversial. The president appointed the public prosecutor, Talaat Abdallah, as part of a sweeping decree that sacked the Mubarak-era prosecutor, sidelined the judiciary, and made his own powers immune to judicial review. Mr. Abdallah today reversed a decision to transfer the local prosecutor who ordered the release of the prisoners detained by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm reported the local prosecutor accused Abdallah of ordering his transfer as a punitive measure after he refused Abdallah's pressure to charge some of the protesters with crimes.

BROTHERS CALLED UP

The clashes last week were some of the deadliest this year. Protesters against the president had gathered at his presidential palace on Dec. 4 to protest his decision to grant himself immunity from judicial review, and to call a quick referendum on a controversial draft constitution. Some stayed overnight, camping out beside the palace.

On Dec. 5, Muslim Brotherhood leaders called on their followers to march to the presidential palace. Essam El Erian, the deputy chief of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, called on members to go to the palace, implying that if police would not protect it, FJP and Brotherhood members would do so themselves. "If state agencies are weak and still damaged by the wounds of the past, the people can impose their will and protect legitimacy. Members of the FJP will be on the frontline, God-willing," he posted on his public Facebook page.

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The president's supporters pushed out the protesters who had camped beside the palace, and dismantled their tents. Clashes between the two sides began that afternoon.

Brotherhood adviser Gehad al Haddad, who was present during the clashes, says during the night there was a vicious attack on the president's supporters carried out by "thugs" armed with guns, and that police did nothing to stop the violence. HRW says in its report that both sides were armed. The Brotherhood says all of the 11 deaths were either Brotherhood members or people who were on the Brotherhood side of the clashes, though the opposition disputes that.

During the clashes, Brotherhood members and supporters began capturing protesters from the other side. According to Mr. Haddad, they were capturing the armed thugs who had attacked them. Multiple protesters said they were apprehended by the president's supporters, who beat them, bound them, and then detained 49 of them in an area in front of the gate to the presidential palace, where they interrogated them. The questions aimed at extracting confessions of being paid by opposition leaders to attack the Brotherhood.

ORDEAL OF THOSE NABBED

Ramy Sabry, a pharmacist, says he was at the protest to provide medical aid to those hurt in the fighting. He was on the opposition side of the chaotic clashes around 1 a.m. on the morning of Dec 6. when a group of Morsi supporters captured him. They grabbed him and pushed him all the way to the presidential palace, which took about 10 minutes, he says.

"On the way, I was attacked by everything they carried. Some had wooden sticks, some metal rods, someone had a knife because I have a cut on my face. They beat me the entire way there until I reached the palace. Then they tied me up."

Mr. Sabry says there were around 10 or 15 other captured protesters in an area cordoned off by riot police when he arrived, but their numbers swelled to 49 by the afternoon. "They tried to make me confess I got money from ElBaradei or Hamdeen to attack them and the palace," he says, referring to two opposition leaders and former presidential candidates who joined an opposition coalition against the president's recent moves. "I insisted that I am not getting any money. I am here because I am against the constitutional decree, and I have the right to protest."

When he would not confess, they left him and tried the same tactics on the other bound protesters, slapping them and kicking them while questioning them, he says. Several of those detained were children, he says. After around ten hours, his captors agreed to tie his hands in front of his body instead of behind his back, because he was in great pain, he says

Sabry described those doing the interrogations as Freedom and Justice Party members, and says he recognized two of them and gave their names. He says one of them talked about a phone call with Mohamed El Beltagi, a prominent member of the party. In a separate interview, Omar also described overhearing one of the men who held him on the phone with Mr. Beltagi.

Beltagi could not be reached for comment.

Video footage confirms what the protesters describe, and shows handcuffed and bloodied protesters being interrogated. All the 49 who were held outside the presidential palace were handed over to police and prosecutors in the late afternoon of Dec. 6, joining dozens of others who had been handed over to police by the president's supporters. By Saturday, 137 had been released for lack of evidence, while four remained in custody.

MORSI'S COMMENTS

According to the HRW report, Morsi's prerecorded speech, in which he mentions confessions, was broadcast as the protesters were still being questioned by prosecutors, and lawyers present said none of them confessed in those interviews. In his speech, the president said "Sadly, some of those arrested have work and communication ties to political forces. And some of those using weapons were hired to do so, in exchange for a payment of money. This is what the investigations revealed, based on their confessions."

HRW urged the prosecutor to examine possible links between the detentions and the authorities. The report also noted a statement made by the Brotherhood's lawyer, on Dec. 6, saying "83 thugs were arrested with money, knives, and Molotov cocktails.… They admitted causing riots and killing and injuring hundreds of [the president'] supporters…. We have clear-cut and documented evidence that proves major politicians and media figures incited the violence."

The Information Minister, a Brotherhood member, also repeated the accusations in the state daily Al Ahram, citing "documents and evidence confiscated from dozens of thugs in front of the presidential palace."

Haddad says that the president's supporters were catching armed thugs and handing them over to police, amid a vicious attack on the Brotherhood members and supporters that he says killed ten of them. "I saw people being taken from the front lines. They were attackers. They had weapons," he says. Brotherhood members often intervened to stop beatings of those caught, he says.

He defends the Brotherhood's decision to send its followers to the palace, a call observers predicted would end in violence.

"At the end of the day this was a carefully designed coup by a few thugs that were hired by previous members of the Mubarak regime," says Haddad, adding that prominent members of the opposition are connected to the attacks as well. He could not provide evidence to back up his accusations.

"The Muslim Brotherhood came down as a human shield to prevent a bloodier confrontation between the presidential guard and the rest of the supporters," says Haddard. He says the Brotherhood followers had to protect the palace, because the police, loyal to Mubarak's regime and hostile to the Brotherhood, would not do so. "The objective of the Muslim Brotherhood was to protect the sovereignty of the state against an organized coup led by former Mubarak cronies."

Protesters who were detained and beaten say the episode makes them feel Morsi is Brotherhood president, not a leader of all Egyptians. When Morsi won the presidential elections, Omar told his friends that they should give him a chance to prove himself for a year. If he proved to be a good president, he would support him, he says.

But from the moment the president addressed his supporters in front of his palace after his recent decree, instead of giving an address to all Egyptians on television, Omar began to feel the president was not his president, he says. After what happened to him last week, he's more determined than ever to oppose Morsi. "I will not surrender, I will not give up," he says.

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