MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti) - Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is expected to meet with senior judges on Monday in an attempt to find a solution to a crisis over his new constitutional declaration, which gives Morsi sweeping new powers, Arab media reported.
Activists gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day Sunday, blocking traffic with homemade barricades to protest what they called Morsi’s “power grab,” Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on Sunday.
Clashes between riot police and protesters were reported nearby. One member of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood was reported killed and 60 others injured on Sunday when the movement’s headquarters in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Damanhour were attacked.
British broadcaster BBC quoted Morsi as saying in a statement that his new decree giving him broad powers is temporary. Morsi also said the decree is not aimed at concentrating power in his hands but is designed to prevent the undermining of democratically elected bodies.
The new constitutional declaration, issued on Thursday, expands Morsi’s executive powers and puts him above the judiciary, declaring that the courts are barred from challenging his decisions. It also exempts the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from judicial review.
Egypt’s Judges Club on Saturday called for "the nationwide suspension of work in all courts and prosecution administrations" in protest against Morsi’s new constitutional declaration. The club issued a statement after an emergency meeting urging Morsi to revoke his controversial decree and to reinstate the dismissed Hosni Mubarak-era prosecutor general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud.
Judges and prosecutors in Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city, have already begun the strike saying they have suspended all work “until the declaration is withdrawn.”
Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, earlier called Morsi’s move “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings,” while prominent opposition figure Mohamed El Baradei has accused Morsi of usurping authority and becoming a "new pharaoh.
The Thursday decree has sparked protest rallies throughout the country. Over 500 people are believed to have been injured in clashes between police and protesters, according to Al Jazeera.
