Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi staged fresh Friday rallies following the weekly prayers in several Egyptian provinces.
Several pro-Morsi rallies set out in Giza, with supporters waving banners bearing Morsi's image and flashed the four-fingered Rabaa salute in memory of hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators killed by security forces when their protest camps were violently dispersed in mid-August.
Backers of the deposed president staged several rallies in eastern and southern Cairo. Pro-Morsi marches were also staged from several mosques in the coastal city of Alexandria.
Similar rallies were staged in the canal cities of Suez and Ismailia and the central Ben Sueif and Minya provinces, amid calls for the release of detainees.
Friday's rallies are part of weeklong demonstrations called by the pro-Morsi National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy.
In a Thursday statement, the alliance called on supporters to draw inspiration from recent anti-government demonstrations in Ukraine that led to the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
"Events in Ukraine augur well for you," the alliance asserted.
Pro-Morsi protesters have staged almost daily rallies since Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, was ousted by the military last July following mass protests against his presidency.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
