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Egyptian security forces use water cannon to disperse protesters during a demonstration against the military trials, outside the Shura Council, in Cairo, yesterday.
CAIRO: Ten members of the panel drafting Egypt’s new constitution suspended work yesterday after authorities arrested several protesters, including a few prominent activists, a committee member said. Hoda El Sadda, a senior member of the 50-member panel, said she and nine others had “suspended work after the arrest of protesters”.
As a result, the panel suspended its work for the day, but adjourned its session to this morning, television reports said.
Egyptian police arrested about 30 protesters among dozens demonstrating in Cairo against an article in the revised basic law that allows the military to try civilians in certain cases, a security official said. The action was taken because the demonstration was unauthorised, officials said, referring to a disputed new protest law enacted at the weekend which requires protest organisers to give three days’ written notice to authorities.
Yesterday, protesters were demonstrating in front of the Shura Council, where the constitution panel sits, when police used water cannon to disperse them and later made arrests.
Among those arrested were Mona Seif, founder of a campaign against military trials of civilians, and Ahmad Harara, a dentist who lost his eyes to birdshot during protests against Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and against the military junta that ruled Egypt immediately after Mubarak’s fall.
Another panel member, Khaled Youssef, also criticised authorities for arresting the protesters as he suspended his work on the committee. “What is happening is threatening the future of our country because this committee of 50 faces risk of exploding. This committee is the cornerstone of the road map,” Youssef said on state television, referring to the transitional plan outlined by Egypt’s interim rulers after they came to power following the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.
The road map envisages that a new constitution, a new parliament and a new president should be in place by the summer of 2014.
Activists, meanwhile, vented their anger at yesterday’s protest crackdown. “This won’t stop the protest”, said Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent activist and brother of Seif. “They used water cannon and then started beating and arresting people,” he said.
“The law must be repealed,” said Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 movement that spearheaded the 2011 revolt that toppled Mubarak. “The interior ministry does not want any protests,” he said, adding that “even under Mubarak we could hold protests”.
Police also used water cannon to disperse another protest in Cairo where demonstrators were demanding the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of demonstrators in November 2011 when opponents of the then military junta clashed with police in the capital.AFP
