CAIRO
Muslim Brotherhood has decried as “a heinous crime” what happened outside Republican Guards headquarters in the early hours of Monday, asserting that the Egyptian people will not cow to “military dictatorship” again.
“While people were performing Fajr prayer, traitorous bullets and tear gas canisters were fired at them by army and police forces,” the group said in a statement.
It added that when scores of women and young men tried to take refuge in the nearby mosque it was besieged by the army which is now detaining anybody who comes out of the mosque.
“This heinous crime which was perpetrated by the army chief who staged a full-fledge military coup against legitimacy under a cover from some civilians (politicians) is evidence of his brutality,” said the statement.
“This commander is determined to go all the way with his usurpation of power over the skulls of armless civilians, paying no care for the sanctuary of people and their blood.”
The Muslim Brotherhood likened army chief Abdel Fatah Sisi to Syrian leader Bashar Assad, accusing him of trying to drag Egypt to become another Syria.
“The blood will be a curse on him and his aides and will be the last nail in the coffin of his greed because the Egyptian people will not be humiliated by military dictatorship again and this crime will only increase the people’s determination to extract their rights and self-determination from the claws of these power usurpers.”
The Egyptian Ambulance Authority (EAO) said 42 people were killed and 322 wounded outside the Republican Guards HQ.
The army said one officer was killed and several soldiers were wounded in an attempt by “a terrorist group” to storm the HQ.
But the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said at least 52 people were killed and hundreds wounded when fire was opened on protesters outside the HQ. Loyalists of Morsi have been camping outside the building where they think the deposed Islamist president was being held.
The Muslim Brotherhood urged politicians who supported the military’s roadmap and the ouster of the elected president to reconsider their position.
“To those politicians who put their hands in the hands of the military coup leader, will your hands still be in his blood-stained hands after he killed your brothers of armless citizens?”
The Salafist Nour party has decided to withdraw from the political process under the roadmap announced by the military last week in reaction to the killing of people outside the Republican Guards HQ.
Nour Party was part of the political forces that the army consulted with on the roadmap, and came out to support it.
Meanwhile, the National Alliance for Defending Legitimacy, a coalition of largely Islamic parties, said the “military coup has revealed its ugly face only six days after restricting freedom of speech and detaining scores of politicians.”
Addressing Egyptian army rank and file it said: “opening fire at the people is a military crime outlawed by the law and the constitution. It is affront to the military honor of the Egyptian armed forces.”
The coalition appealed to the Egyptian people to take to the streets to defend their revolution and freedom
