MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti) - Last Friday’s beating of an old man in Cairo during clashes between protesters and police was planned by Egypt’s ruling authorities to send a message of fear to young people, former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq told Al Arabiya.
At least one person was killed and over 50 injured, including five police officers, as police clashed with protesters outside the capital’s presidential palace on Friday evening. Mass circulated TV footage showed police dragging and beating a naked old man during the clashes.
Shafiq, who served as prime minister under ousted former President Hosni Mubarak, said the torture of the old man was a “new style of exaggerated terrorism used against the Egyptian citizens that will lead only to violence and hatred of the regime.”
He also said that President Mohamed Morsi’s regime is finished, adding that the “rigging of the presidential election” would not be let go.
Last June, Morsi narrowly defeated Shafiq by winning 51.7 percent of the vote in the presidential run-off elections.
Friday’s clashes followed a week of violence that left dozens of people dead.
The opposition has distanced itself from the violence and called on protesters to show restraint.
Seven months into his presidency, Morsi, Egypt's first freely-elected civilian president after a revolution that ousted Mubarak two years ago, stands accused of betraying his election campaign promises by consolidating the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and of failing to become a leader of all Egyptians.
