EGYPT: LARGE RALLIES AFTER JUDGE ORDERS DEPOSED PRESIDENT JAILED

 

Egyptian soldiers stand guard atop an armored vehicle on a bridge leading to Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, July 26. The military ousted Mohamed Morsy, Egypt's first democratically elected president, in early July after days of mass demonstrations.

A Morsy advocate builds a giant portrait of the deposed president Thursday, July 25, while other supporters hold a sit-in outside a Cairo mosque. The military has detained Morsy while an interim government takes shape.

Morsy supporters say evening prayers during a rally July 25 outside a Cairo mosque. A man with a pistol, second left, and Morsy opponents detain a suspected Morsy supporter who was wounded during clashes in Cairo on Monday, July 22. Supporters and opponents clashed July 22 near the city's Tahrir Square. Men evacuate an injured opponent of Morsy's during clashes with his supporters in Cairo on July 22. A man fires a gun during clashes between opponents and supporters of Morsy in Cairo on July 22. A riot police officer aims rubber bullets toward Morsy supporters in Cairo on July 22. Riot police evacuate an injured anti-Morsy protester in Cairo on July 22. A Morsy supporter, center, who was allegedly beaten by opponents of Morsy runs during clashes in Cairo on July 22. A Morsy opponent carries his injured friend in Cairo on July 22. Supporters of Morsy pause for Friday prayers on July 19 at Nasr City in Cairo, where protesters have installed their camp and held daily rallies. Morsy supporters take part in a protest march near government ministry buildings on Wednesday, July 17, in Cairo. A Morsy supporter is held back by riot police during a rally near Tahrir Square on July 17. A supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and of Morsy covers his mouth under the 6th October Bridge in Cairo on Tuesday, July 16. A riot police officer fires tear gas toward Morsy supporters during clashes in Cairo on Monday, July 15. Morsy supporters run from tear gas in Cairo on July 15. Egyptians in Cairo's Tahrir Square pray before breaking their fast on the third day of Ramadan, the sacred holy month for Muslims, on Friday, July 12. Supporters of the deposed Morsy rally in Nasr City, Egypt, a suburb of Cairo, on Monday, July 8. A man reacts after seeing the body of a family member at the Liltaqmeen al-Sahy Hospital in Cairo, allegedly killed during a sit-in supporting Morsy in front of the Republican Guard headquarters on July 8. Injured men receive medical attention after clashes between supporters of Morsy and security forces in Cairo on July 8. Opponents of Mohamed Morsy gather at Tahrir Square during a protest in Cairo on Sunday, July 7. Supporters of Morsy pray next to the headquarters of the Republican Guards in Cairo on Saturday, July 6, during the funeral of seven people killed during clashes. People carry coffins on July 6 of two Morsy opponents who were killed during clashes in Cairo. A Morsy supporter joins protests near the University of Cairo in Giza on July 6. Supporters and opponents of Morsy clash in Cairo on Friday, July 5. A protester is attended to in Cairo's Tahrir Square during fighting between the pro- and anti-Morsy crowds on July 5. An Egyptian military helicopter hovers over supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed President Mohamed Morsy in Cairo on July 5. Morsy supporters hold up their bloodstained hands after Egypt's armed forces opened fire on rally in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo on July 5. Morsy supporters carry a man who was shot during clashes next to the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo on July 5. State broadcaster Nile TV said a number of those backing the deposed leader were wounded as they tried to storm the headquarters, where Morsy reportedly was being held. A wounded man is helped following the gun battle outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard on July 5. Egyptians hold portraits of Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi reading "Come down, Sisi" as they gather in Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square on July 5. Morsy supporters react to an explosion during clashes with police officers on July 5 outside Cairo University in Giza. Egyptian Army soldiers stand guard at the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard on July 5 as an Apache attack helicopter flies overhead. Morsy supporters pray near the University of Cairo in Giza on July 5. A man prays on July 5 before the protest near the University of Cairo. Protesters take cover from tear gas during clashes outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo on July 5. A military helicopter flies by Egypt's Presidential Palace in Cairo on July 5. Egyptians watch fireworks in Tahrir Square on Thursday, July 4, the day after Morsy's ouster. People dance and cheer in the streets of Cairo on July 4. A Morsy supporter holds a poster of the deposed president during a July 4 rally in Nasr City. A massive crowd gathers in Tahrir Square on July 4. Egyptians cheer and wave national flags as airplanes fly above Tahrir Square on July 4, leaving a trail of smoke in the colors of the national flag. A woman uses a mobile phone to record the July 4 celebrations in Tahrir Square. An opposition protester chants slogans against Morsy near Cairo University, where Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered on July 4 to show support for the ousted president. A man holds a newspaper near Mesaha Square in Cairo on July 4. Dejected Morsy supporters attend a rally in Nasr City on July 4. A Morsy supporter shows his bloodied shirt during a July 4 rally near the University of Cairo. A young Egyptian boy shoots off fireworks during celebrations in Tahrir Square on July 4. People walk by a pile of Egyptian flags for sale in Tahrir Square on July 4. Crowds throng Tahrir Square on July 4. Egyptian soldiers deploy near Cairo University on July 4. People dance and cheer at Tahrir Square in Cairo on July 4. Adly Mansour, center, stands after delivering a speech during his swearing-in ceremony as Egypt's interim president in the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo on July 4. Mansour has served as the head of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court. Armored vehicles with the Egyptian army sit at a checkpoint in the Cairo district of Nasr City on July 4. A Morsy supporter reacts as a military helicopter flies over during a July 4 rally in Nasr City. A boy with face paint the color of the Egyptian flag pauses on July 4 in Tahrir Square. A pedestrian shakes hands with a member of the military at a roadblock in Giza. Security personnel rest on July 4 in Tahrir Square. A man walks to Tahrir Square on July 4. A family sleeps on a bridge near Tahrir Square on July 4. A member of the Egyptian military redirects traffic on July 4 at a roadblock in Giza. Bread is sold near Tahrir Square on July 4. An Egyptian military member guards a roadblock in Giza on July 4. Massive, rival rallies in and around Cairo ran into the wee hours of Saturday, with one group celebrating the ouster and jailing of once Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy and others angrily demanding the democratically elected leader's return.

These demonstrations around the capital -- and in fact all around the tumultuous nation -- showed the raw emotion and deep divisions tied to Morsy, political battles that have rocked a country already dealing with major economic and other challenges.

 

The mass events occasionally have turned violent in recent weeks, either with clashes between competing factions or between protesters and security forces.

 

It happened Friday as well, when five people were killed and 72 injured in the port city of Alexandria, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported, citing security sources.

 

Scores of seemingly injured protesters also rushed late Friday around Nasr City, an area not far from central Cairo where Morsy backers were staging a large rally, according to a CNN crew at the scene.

As the effects of tear gas wafted through the air, witnesses reported that some had been hurt in clashes with security forces around the 6th of October bridge over the Nile River.

 

A very different scene played out not far across that bridge in Tahrir Square, which was the hub of the popular movement that led to the military's ouster of another president -- Hosni Mubark, who'd ruled Egypt for nearly three decades -- in early 2011.

 

There, again and again, fireworks lit up the nighttime sky. Those gathered below, opposed to Morsy, cheered military helicopters that flew by, sometimes dropping leaflets and Egyptian flags.

Morsy, and how he'd steered Egypt's government, was foremost on the minds of people on both sides of the fight.

 

The former Muslim Brotherhood leader became Egypt's first democratically president in June 2012, but found himself at odds with the opposition before the military removed him from power, and held him, early this month.

More protest expected in Egypt

Middle East stories that matter

On Friday, Morsy found himself under fire again -- not for actions he took as president, but before

 then.

 

Because of these allegations, a judge ordered the former president jailed for 15 days, according to state media.

Morsy a victim of Egypt's revolution of the mind

Prosecutor: Morsy collaborated with Hamas

Immediately after the coup, a prosecutor opened an investigation into claims Morsy and top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood -- the Islamist group that was banned under Mubarak but became Egypt's most powerful political force after his fall -- had incited violence and the killing of protesters.

 

The charges revealed Friday, though, stem from a jailbreak from Wadi-Natroun prison in the days after Egypt's 2011 revolution.

 

Nineteen Brotherhood members, including Morsy, are accused of having escaped, state-run EGYNews reported.

 

The prosecutors who ordered the probe two weeks ago said the escape was plotted by "foreign elements" including Hamas, its military wing, the Islamic Palestinian Army and Hezbollah. The Muslim Brotherhood was named as a domestic group that cooperated with those who broke them out of prison.

 

Morsy will be questioned about whether he collaborated with Hamas about the prison break and about attacks on police stations, the government-run Ahram Online reported.

 

He is accused of not merely escaping, but destroying the prison's official records as well as intentionally killing and abducting police officers and prisoners.

 

Local media reports at the time stated that Morsy was in prison for a single day.

 

According to the Al-Masri Al-Youm newspaper, Morsy was among 500 members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were arrested after planning to join anti-Mubarak demonstrations. Allegedly, there were no formal charges against them.

 

The same newspaper wrote about the jailbreak that happened the next day. It quoted a Brotherhood leader saying that they didn't escape from prison, but were freed by family members after the warden and guards fled as the revolution unfolded.

 

Political divisions run deep in volatile country

The military has not commented on Morsy's whereabouts. When he was first detained, a Brotherhood spokesman told CNN that the deposed leader was initially under house arrest at the presidential Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo and later moved to the Defense Ministry.

 

He's not the first of his allies jailed since the coup. So, too, have eight leading me

mbers of the Freedom and Justice Party -- the Brotherhood's political arm -- arrests that party officials have decried as illegal and politically motivated.

 

Human rights organizations have offered similar views. And U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is among the world leaders who have called for Morsy and other detained leaders to be immediately released "or (to) have their cases reviewed transparently without delay."

 

This political standoff comes as Egypt deals with a long struggling economy and additional security challenges.

 

In the volatile region of Sinai, for instance, armed men attacked a military checkpoint and police station in the town of Sheikh Zweid, resident Ahmed Abu Eita said. At least one armored military vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, he said.

 

"We can't leave home ... We don't know who is firing at who," Eita said. "The ambulances can't even move to get the injured."

 

He and others said the upheaval in Cairo has hurt efforts to fight terrorism and bring peace to his region, where violence has long been a problem and has increased since Morsy's ouster.

Egypt seemingly has been teetering for years, and there has been little indication of late those festering tensions will calm anytime soon.

 

Speaking on CNN, Muslim Brotherhood spokeswoman Mona al Qazzaz accused the military and opposition of, together, "killing the biggest democracy in the Middle East."

 

"The military stepped in, and the opposition that failed to win through the ballot boxes came on the back of the tanks," she said.

 

Yet opposition activists, such as June 30 Front spokesman Ahmed Hawary, said Morsy left the military little choice but to intervene. Yes, he was democratically elected, but he didn't give those opposed to him any way to check and challenge what he was doing, according to Hawary.

 

"Democracy is due political process," he told CNN. "But there has never been a due political process (under Morsy)."