Egypt tensions over Mursi spill into clashes

CAIRO: Supporters of President Muhammad Mursi clashed with opponents in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday in the worst violence over Egypt’s new Islamist leader, a day after he crossed swords with the judiciary.
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement and a coalition of secular-leaning groups held separate rallies on some of the thorniest issues facing the new democracy after last year’s uprising which ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
The health ministry said at least 12 people were wounded as protesters showered each other with stones, after Mursi supporters tore down a podium from which anti-Brotherhood chants were being orchestrated.
The violence broke out as Mursi faced a backlash from judges after trying to sack the chief prosecutor following this week’s acquittals of Mubarak-era officials on trial for a deadly attack on protesters during the 2011 uprising.
Despite multiple statements from Brotherhood leaders saying they would attend the rally, the group denied on Twitter that any of its members was involved in the fighting.
“We are not involved in Tahrir clashes, and none of our members were there,” it wrote on its Twitter account, prompting a wave of derision from other people who posted videos of apparent Brotherhood members in Tahrir.
In a speech in the coastal city of Alexandria, Mursi pledged to bring to justice the officials accused of organizing the killings of protesters during the uprising that eventually brought his once-banned movement to power.
“We will never ignore those who committed crimes against the nation and corrupted it,” he said in the speech reported by the official MENA news agency.
But other groups that had taken part in the 18-day uprising and now oppose Mursi accuse the Islamists of dominating political life, particularly a crucial body that is drafting Egypt’s new constitution.
Mursi narrowly won a June election which presented voters with an unpopular choice between an Islamist president and Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister.