Sit-in protests in the capital Cairo by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi will be “brought to an end soon and in a legal manner,” the Egyptian interim interior minister says.
Mohamed Ibrahim made the remarks during an interview with private Egyptian TV channel Al-Hayat 2 on Friday as hundreds of thousands of Egyptians held demonstrations across the country for and against the army’s coup against President Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president.
Muslim Brotherhood activists and their supporters have been staging sit-in protests at Nasr City and al-Nahda Square in Cairo for weeks, demanding Morsi be reinstated.
Ibrahim said that the protest spots would be cleared since residents in the area have filed complaints against the pro-Morsi vigils.
Meanwhile, interim President Adly Mahmoud Mansour called on the pro-Morsi protesters to end their sit-ins and return to their homes.
“Go back home and I personally promise that no one will legally pursue you,” he said on Friday evening.
On July 3, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced that Morsi was no longer in office and declared that the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Mansour, had been appointed as the new interim president of Egypt. The army also suspended the constitution.
Army officials said Morsi, who took office in June 2012, was being held “preventively” by the military.
On July 5, Muslim Brotherhood supreme leader Mohammed Badie said the coup against Morsi was illegal and millions would remain on the street until he is reinstated as president.
Badie vowed to “complete the revolution” that toppled the Western-backed regime of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The Egyptians launched a revolution against the pro-Israeli regime on January 25, 2011, which eventually brought an end to the 30-year dictatorship of Mubarak on February 11, 2011.
