Top judge Mansour sworn in as Egypt interim president

Egypt’s chief justice Mansour was sworn in as the country’s interim president, a day after the military ousted Mohamed Morsi following a week of massive protests.

Adly Mahmud Mansour took the oath of interim president on Thursday, as his democratically elected predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, was held in an unspecified military barracks along with senior aides.

Before the constitutional court, Mansour said: “I swear by God to uphold the Republican system and respect the constitution and law… and safeguard the people and protect the nation.”

“The revolutionaries of Egypt are everywhere and we salute them all, those who prove to the world that they are strong enough, the brave youth of Egypt, who were the leaders of this revolution.”

Separately, Mansour was made head of the supreme constitutional court  – a position he was due to take on June 30, when protests against Morsi’s one year in power began in earnest.

Morsi was overthrown by the military on Wednesday. According to a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi was being held in a military facility with top aides.

“Morsi and the entire presidential team are under house arrest in the Presidential Republican Guards Club,” Gehad El-Haddad, the son of a top Morsi aide, told AFP news agency on Thursday. Haddad’s father, Essam El-Haddad, widely seen as Morsi’s right-hand man, was among those held, he added.

Morsi was believed to be at a Republican Guard barracks in Cairo but it was not clear whether he was under arrest.

Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood officials were also reported to have been arrested, with many senior leaders being held in the Torah prison in Cairo – the same prison holding Hosni Mubarak, who was himself deposed in the 2011 revolution.

Army chief Abdul Fatah Khalil Al-Sisi gave a televised address saying the army is heeding the call of the Egyptian people and suspending the country’s barely six-month-old constitution. 

He laid out a roadmap for the government’s future, including installing the interim leader, a panel to review the constitution, a national reconciliation committee, and fresh elections for president and parliament.  He said the roadmap had been agreed to by a range of political groups.

Both Sisi and Morsi called for Egyptians to remain peaceful.  The president said on his Twitter account the military’s action amounted to a “full coup” and urged the Egyptian people to reject the move.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but fighting between supporters and opponents of Morsi have left nearly 50 people dead.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for calm and a preservation of fundamental rights in Egypt, including freedom of speech and assembly.

The army has deployed troops, commandos and armored vehicles in cities around the country to guard against violence. 

Cairo’s Tahrir Square, which was the epicenter of protests that brought down former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, was calm Thursday with remnants of days of protests sitting in the center of the square.  On Wednesday, fireworks burst over dancing crowds there, one of the scenes of celebration by millions of anti-Morsi protesters following the army chief’s announcement.

Fearing a backlash against Americans, U.S. officials have ordered an evacuation of American embassy personnel in Cairo.

After Gen Sisi’s address, both Pope Tawadros II – the head of the Coptic Church – and leading opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei made short televised speeches about the new roadmap for Egypt’s future which they had agreed with the army.

ElBaradei said the roadmap aimed for national reconciliation and represented a fresh start to the January 2011 revolution.

Opposition leader and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa told AFP that consultations for a government and reconciliation “will start from now”.

Morsi became Egypt’s first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

However his term in office was marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.

Source:  THE TIMES OF EARTRH / Agencies