Monday’s daily papers were full of news pertaining to violent clashes between protesters and police forces that occurred on Sunday in Alexandria and Shubra al-Kheima.
They also carried news of other nationwide protests and general unrest affecting the country ahead of commemorations to mark the second anniversary of the revolution that ended the 30-year rule of former President Hosni Mubarak. Also featured is a human rights report indicating that more lawsuits have been filed against those defaming President Mohamed Morsy than any other leader in the country’s history.
Topping the news is Shubra al-Kheima, which witnessed armed clashes between protesters and security forces outside the city’s second largest police station starting on Saturday night. Police are accused of accidentally shooting an innocent bystander dead during a shootout with drug dealers.
The independent Al-Shorouk and Al-Watan newspapers reported that violent confrontations involving firearms took place after family members of the victim, Mahrous Mohamed, allegedly attacked the station with automatic rifles Saturday night and Sunday. These two papers, along with all others issued on Monday, report that five people were killed in these clashes — including two police officers and a conscript — while 12 others were injured.
Al-Shorouk reported that nine protesters — “violent criminal elements” according to the police — were arrested pursuant to the clashes. This paper also indicated that friends and family members of certain detainees within this police station had joined in the clashes in attempts to free their loved ones.
Another Al-Shorouk headline read: “Renewal of clashes outside Alexandria courthouse.” These clashes are reported to have broken out after judges in the Alexandria Criminal Court — who were due to issue their verdict on the killings of unarmed protesters at the hands of police forces during the January 2011uprising — refused to allow family members of the deceased to attend Sunday’s court session. The judges’ decision to refer the case to the Alexandria Appeals Court also incited the ire of protesters.
Riot police fired tear gas and birdshot in attempt to disperse the angry protesters, who fought back with rocks and firebombs. At least one police pickup truck was reportedly torched, and security forces are said to have arrested tens of protesters during the clashes.
Al-Shorouk reported that at least four were injured, while other papers reported as many as 80 injured. The state-owned Al-Ahram said that “several police vehicles were damaged” in the course of the clashes.
In other news, the independent Youm-7 Newspaper ran a headline reading “16 parties and movements call for protests on January 25” against the rule of Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The independent Al-Tahrir Newspaper ran a caricature of Morsy sleeping in his bed while surrounded by barbed wired. The headline read: “Presidential preparations for the revolution’s anniversary.”
The Muslim Brotherhood’s mouthpiece, the Freedom and Justice newspaper, ran a headline reading “Minister of interior: Security checkpoints to confront troublemakers in Tahrir Square.” According to the article, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim has announced that police checkpoints would be set up around Cairo on 25 January, but that there would be no police deployed within, or immediately around, Tahrir Square.
Ahead of these protests, the Brotherhood’s paper ran another headline warning: “Calls for justice and accountability are legitimate, while calls for chaos are rejected.”
Also in the Brotherhood’s paper was the headline: “New York Times: Morsy struggles to confront bureaucracy and corruption.” The Times described Morsy as Egypt’s first democratically elected president, who seeks to salvage the country from the mismanagement, bureaucracy and corruption which characterized the Mubarak-regime. The paper added that the political opposition’s talk of Morsy’s “Brotherhoodization of the state” is baseless.
According to the Youm-7 Newspaper, quoting and citing “top sheikhs and scholars from Al-Azhar,” “Morsy is the Emir of believers and those who attempt to denigrate him are evil rebels.”
In other news, the liberal opposition Al-Wafd newspaper ran a headline reading: “Rights report: Morsy occupies first place in terms of leaders targeting journalists.” Al-Wafd, citing the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), said that 24 lawsuits have been filed against journalists and opposition figures on charges of “defaming the president” over the course of his first 200 days in office. Al-Wafd reported that this number of lawsuits is higher than under any other Egyptian leader since the days of King Farouq — who was ousted in a military coup on 1952.
Al-Tahrir Newspaper, also citing the ANHRI report, ran a headline reading: “Morsy sets new record for number of lawsuits filed against journalists on charges of insulting the president.” This paper said that these lawsuits filed by Morsy supporters represent more than four times the number of lawsuits against journalists and opposition figures filed under Mubarak’s 30-year rule; and more than 24 times the number of lawsuits filed under the rule of President Anwar al-Sadat.
Al-Tahrir concludes that Morsy’s regime and loyalists have topped the record for the number of lawsuits filed pertaining to “insults to the head of state” since Egypt first issued a law criminalizing such insults in 1909.
