CAIRO, Dec 11, 2012 (AFP)
CAIRO, Dec 11, 2012 (AFP)
Protesters in Cairo were Tuesday trying to break through metal barriers protecting the presidential palace, but soldiers were holding the line, AFP correspondents at the scene said.
There were no incidents of violence.
A couple of hundred protesters opposed to President Mohamed Morsi and an Islamist-backed constitution scheduled to go to a referendum on Saturday were pressing up against the waist-high crowd barriers, the correspondents said.
Hundreds of soldiers, many in riot gear, stood behind the barriers, and behind big concrete blocks on either side that together create a security perimeter around Morsi’s palace.
Clashes there last week between pro- and anti-Morsi protesters left seven people dead and hundreds injured.
More mass protests were called for Tuesday in Cairo by Morsi opponents and supporters.
The president has ordered the army to fully support the police in protecting institutions such as his palace, and given military officers powers to arrest civilians.
Some of the protesters in front of the palace said they were against the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, fearing it was pulling Egypt towards an Islamic state.
“I’m not against Morsi personally, but the supreme guide (the Brotherhood’s religious leader, Mohammed Badie). Morsi obeys the Muslim Brotherhood’s guide,” said a 54-year-old doctor who declined to give his name.
“I’m afraid of the Brotherhood. It’s like we are in a prison… They are liars,” he said.
