Egypt’s instant despot
CAIRO — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi issued constitutional amendments yesterday, granting himself sweeping powers and ordering the retrial of leaders of Hosni Mubarak’s regime for the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ousted Egypt’s old guard.
After ordering the retrials, he dismissed the Mubarakera prosecutor general, immediately swearing in a new one.
Morsi also ordered that all decisions he has made since taking office in June and until the adoption of a new constitution are not subject to appeal in court or by any other authority, a move that places him above oversight of any kind.
The Egyptian leader also decreed that the panel drafting a new constitution would be immune from any possible court decisions to dissolve it.
He granted the same protection to the largely toothless upper chamber of parliament. Both are dominated by Morsi’s Islamist allies.
Several courts are now considering cases demanding the dissolution of both bodies. Parliament’s lower chamber, also dominated by Islamists, was dissolved in June by a court decision that found the rules of its election illegal.
Morsi’s declarations came on the fourth day of protests in Cairo against his policies and the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist group from which he hails. The group also spawned Hamas.