Egypt's Pro-Morsi Bloc Calls For Fresh Protests

The main support bloc of ousted President Mohamed Morsi has called for a fresh week of protests in the run-up to the 4th anniversary of a popular uprising that ended the rule of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.



In a Thursday statement, the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy called on supporters to "mobilize and prepare for a fresh wave of revolution" on January 25 of next year, four years after mass protests erupted in Egypt against Mubarak's 30-year rule, leading to his resignation 18 days later.



The pro-Morsi alliance has continued to organize regular, albeit dwindled, rallies to protest last year's ouster of Morsi – Egypt's first freely elected president – by the army following mass protests against his one-year rule.



The move, in which current President and former army general Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi played a key role, has been denounced by Morsi backers as a "military coup" while being hailed by army supporters as a "revolution."



Late last month, a court dropped charges against Mubarak of complicity in the murder of over 200 protesters during the 2011 uprising.



The ruling, which also cleared Mubarak's top security aides of murder charges, sparked angry demonstrations near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square – the uprising's epicenter - which turned into deadly clashes with security forces.



The court verdict had come amid an ongoing government crackdown on dissent in which hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters have been killed and thousands, mainly Islamists, imprisoned since Morsi's ouster.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Kahire