Cairo: Egyptian authorities on Wednesday issued arrest warrants for two leading pro-democracy activists over organising an illegal protest, said judicial sources, a move set to widen rifts between the military-backed government and young revolutionaries.
Cairo prosecutors ordered the arrest of Ahmad Maher and Alaa Abdul Fattah, who played a major role in an uprising that forced former president Hosni Mubarak to step down more than two years ago.
The two activists are wanted for probes over organising a demonstration without permission from police on Tuesday outside the parliament in Cairo, added the sources. Security forces used water cannon and tear gas to break up the anti-military protest under a new law on public protests, which obliges activists to obtain permission from police before holding a rally.
The law, which human rights groups condemned as oppressive, authorises police to block and relocate planned demonstrations if deemed a threat to public order. Maher, the founder of the youth-based April 6 movement, did not respond to phone calls from Gulf News. Sources inside the group said he had not been arrested.
Maher, now 33, was repeatedly detained by Mubarak’s police and briefly arrested under the Islamist president Mohammad Mursi, who was deposed by the army in July.
The Interior Ministry said Maher had been asked to apply for permission before going ahead with Tuesday’s rally, but he refused.
“It is illogical for me to apply for permission to protest against a law, which I do not recognise it,” Maher told the online edition of the semi-official newspaper Al Ahram following police’s crackdown on the protest. “We’ll continue our action until this law is scrapped,” he added without elaborating.
Police rounded up dozens of the demonstrators, prompting 10 members of a commission drafting a new constitution to walk out in protest.
“We can’t continue our job of writing a constitution based on freedom while these young people are arrested,” said celebrated filmmaker Khalid Yousuf, one of the members who walked out. “The president should immediately abolish this law. How came this law is issued while the blood of demonstrators is still fresh on the streets?” He told the private television CBC, referring to hundreds of demonstrators killed since the revolt against Mubarak.
Yousuf vowed not to return to the panel before the arrested protesters are released. The walkouts promoted the 50-member commission to temporarily suspend its meetings.
State television said on Wednesday police had released 20 female demonstrators hours after their arrest.
However, 24 male protesters were remanded for four days pending further investigations on charges of holding an illegal rally and thuggery, according to the broadcaster.
Police have warned they will disperse unauthorised demonstrations, drawing defiant calls from several pro-democracy groups for mass protests against the law.
The government says the law, signed by caretaker President Adly Mansour on Sunday, is designed to prevent violent protests.
However, rights groups are concerned that the law will be manipulated to oppress the opposition and crack down on public gatherings.
Fresh tensions with pro-democracy groups come as the military-backed authorities are locked in a spiralling confrontation with Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood, who has vowed non-stop protests until he is reinstated.
