Wholesale presidential pardon: Morsi grants amnesty to Egypt’s revolutionary inmates

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi.(AFP Photo / Eyptian Presidency)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/egypt-morsi-pardon-revolutionary-inmates-953/

Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi has signed a degree pardoning all those who had been arrested during last year's revolution. The declaration could lead to the release of several thousand people.

­The decree announced via Morsi’s official Facebook account declares amnesty for actions "committed with the aim of supporting the revolution and bringing about its objectives, in the period January 25, 2011 to June 30, 2012. The only exception will be those accused of first-degree murder.

According to the document, people who already have convictions and those who are still under investigation or on trial are all being pardoned.

Under the amnesty conditions, the names of those to be pardoned will be published by the attorney general and the military prosecution within one month, the state news agency reports.

The announcement comes as Morsi celebrates 100 days in office as the first freely elected president of Egypt following the removal of Hosni Mubarak after more than 30 years in charge

The timing also coincides with the first commemoration of the Maspero massacre in which 20 Coptic Christian died.

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Morsi rejects foreign military intervention in Syria as 'big mistake'

 

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/25/263437/syria-military-solution-big-mistake-morsi/

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has stressed that his country is against “any foreign military intervention” in Syria, calling the Western-backed idea of attacking the Arab country “a big mistake.”

"I am against foreign intervention by force in what happens in Syria," Morsi said in an interview with American television PBS on Monday.

"I do not condone this and I think that it is a big mistake if it happens," he added through an interpreter. "Egypt does not agree to this."

The Egyptian president noted that his proposed diplomatic quartet which includes Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey could find a diplomatic solution to the 18-month-old unrest.

"You cannot solve the problem without those countries which intervene in the problem. The stakeholders are the ones who sit down together to solve the problem," he said.

The Syrian government accuses the governments of Saudi Arabia and Turkey of arming insurgents in the country.

The Egyptian president said that he seeks to hold a meeting with the leaders of the three other states in the Syria group on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York to discuss the Syria unrest.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the deadly unrest while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the violence.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the armed militants are foreign nationals, mostly from Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan.

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Egypt declares 70 army generals retired: Report

 

Egyptian Defense Minister Major General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meets with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi at the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, August 22, 2012

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/04/259756/egypt-declares-70-army-generals-retired/

A report says the Egyptian government has announced the retirement of 70 army generals, weeks after President Mohamed Morsi replaced Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as defense minister with Major General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The new defense minister made the announcement, adding that six members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) have also been dismissed, according to a report by the Egyptian daily al-Shorouk.

The six SCAF members will however remain in the armed forces, the paper said.

On August 12, Morsi dismissed Tantawi from his post, canceling a constitutional declaration issued by the military that restricted presidential powers.

Tantawi was Egypt’s defense minister for nearly two decades under former dictator Hosni Mubarak. He headed Egypt’s SCAF, which took power in February 2011 after Egyptians launched a revolution against Mubarak’s regime in January, which eventually brought an end to the dictatorship.

Morsi also ordered the retirement of the military chief of staff, Sami Anan, replacing him with Sedqi Sobhi Sayyid Ahmed.

On August 22, Egyptian lawyer Assem Kandil filed the first legal complaint against several officials in the African state including Tantawi.

“I did so because I accuse them all of killing protesters during the series of bloody protests in Egypt following last year’s uprising along with wasting public money in the state’s spending on the parliamentary election,” the lawyer said.

 

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