Egypt alliance holds rallies against military rule

Members of Egypt’s Anti-Coup Alliance have held nationwide rallies calling for an immediate end to military rule and the release of all political detainees in the North African country, Press TV reports.

Egyptian demonstrators who took to the streets on Friday were faced by security forces, but no heavy clashes were reported.

The alliance, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, also called for a round of national protests against the government of President Abdel Fatah el Sisi, who led a military coup last year against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president.

“The government is fragile and it will soon collapse because after the revolution which hasn’t achieved its goals yet, the people will not accept injustice anymore and they will for sure revolt against any tyrant,” said Fawzy Soliman of the Egyptian opposition group, the April 6 Youth Movement.

The demonstrators said they took part in the rallies to voice their anger at the latest series of mass death sentences handed down to Muslim Brotherhood members and a court’s decision to dismiss murder charges against the former dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

On November 29, an Egyptian court dismissed charges against Mubarak in connection with the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his decades-long rule.

“How Hosni Mubarak could get acquitted while Ahmed Duma, the activist who participated in the 2011 revolution, gets three years in prison for just asking the judge if he had a Facebook account. This is ridiculous,” Soliman added.

Egypt has been the scene of massive anti-government protests, with numerous clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters since July 2013.

Rights groups say the army’s crackdown on the supporters of Morsi has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while some 200 people have been sentenced to death in mass trials.