Egypt's
president, Mohammed Morsi, who was in office for one year as the
country's first democratically elected leader, is no longer in power
according to the military -- and his whereabouts are unknown. Tens of
thousands turned out in Tahrir Square to celebrate by waving flags,
dancing and shooting fireworks, as it was announced that the
constitution has been suspended. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
By Ian Johnston and Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News
An
Egyptian constitutional court judge appointed by Hosni Mubarak - the
strongman leader ousted by the Arab Spring uprising - was due to be
sworn in as acting president on Thursday after the military overthrew
the country’s first democratically elected head of state.
Adly
Mansour, chairman of the Supreme Constitutional Court, was to take
office for an unspecified transitional period. The army stressed it had
no interest in power and would seek to hold early elections but it was
unclear when they would occur.
The country’s constitution, which
opponents of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi claimed was
rewritten to favor his Muslim Brotherhood movement, was also suspended
on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood confirmed that
Morsi was under house arrest at the Republican Guard Club. Most members of presidential team have also been placed under house arrest.
On
Monday, the military gave Morsi 48 hours to meet the demands of
millions of protesters who had taken to the streets demanding his
resignation and fresh elections. On Wednesday, as the deadline ran out,
the military moved to depose him.
Armored vehicles, tanks and
troops were deployed throughout the Egyptian capital, including near the
presidential palace. The army seized the headquarters of the state
television and the state-run newspaper, which reported that Morsi had
been told he was no longer president.
Mansour, 68, was appointed to the court by Mubarak, who was forced out in 2011 after some three decades in power.
Ayman
Mohyeldin, NBC News foreign correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow
live from Tahrir Square in Cairo about what happens now that President
Morsi has been removed from power after only a year in office, and what
makes this popular uprising in Egypt different from the one that saw the
removal of Hosni Mubarak.
However, Mansour was elevated to
the chief justice post by Morsi and will be sworn in by judges of his
court, The Associated Press reported.
Ahead of being sworn in as
interim president, Mansour took the oath of office as head of the
constitutional court Thursday. He was so recently appointed by Morsi
that this had not yet happened.
The army has taken control of
state media and blacked out TV stations operated by the Muslim
Brotherhood. Mohamed Saad Katatni, the head of the Brotherhood's Freedom
and Justice Party, was arrested.
The Brotherhood were left to cry
foul after their victory in last year’s elections -- deemed to be free
and fair -- was overturned by the military.
A “new era of repression and tyranny, of an impending authoritarian police state” had begun,
the Brotherhood’s website said, with TV channels shut down, arrests of politicians and “many citizens killed as they demonstrated peacefully.”
Katatni's
son Muaaz Saad Katatni denounced his father’s arrest. “Those who claim
to defend freedoms and democracy, invited my father for dialogue in the
afternoon … then arrested him in the evening,” he said, according to the
website, adding “Welcome to the new era of freedoms!”
Mohamed
Beltagy, member of the Freedom and Justice Party executive bureau, was
quoted on the website as saying that they had tried to stay in power and
negotiate a solution not in “defense of any particular person or group,
but to defend the will of the people which is … not expressed in mutual
crowd-massing but using the tools of democracy which we accepted and
they rejected.”
He said Morsi's followers had not resorted to violence but “our
leaders and youths were killed, our offices – and even our homes –
stormed, ransacked, burned and totally destroyed – not to mention the
insults and obscenities we had to suffer.”
“As electoral and
constitutional legitimacy is rejected, a certain viewpoint is imposed on
all, and guardianship is enforced over the people against their clearly
expressed will,” Beltagy added.
In a statement, President Barack
Obama said the United States supported “a set of core principles,
including opposition to violence, protection of universal human rights,
and reform that meets the legitimate aspirations of the people.”
The
president is asking Egypt's military to quickly return full authority
to their democratically elected civilian government. The White House is
now on the spot because of the perception among Egypt's protesters that
the U.S. overlooked president Mohammed Morsi's crackdown on democracy.
NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
He added: “We are deeply
concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove
President Morsi and suspend the Egyptian constitution. I now call on the
Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full
authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon
as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid
any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and his supporters.”
Early Thursday, it remained unclear whether the U.S. government would define the military’s decision to oust Morsi
as a coup as this could affect the $1.5 billion in aid given to Egypt annually.
U.S.
law bans military or financial assistance “to the government of any
country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military
coup or decree.”
Obama said in his statement that he had “directed
the relevant departments and agencies to review the implications under
U.S. law for our assistance to the government of Egypt.”
“No
transition to democracy comes without difficulty, but in the end it must
stay true to the will of the people,” he added. “An honest, capable and
representative government is what ordinary Egyptians seek and what they
deserve.”
The army insisted it had not carried out a coup, but had acted on the will of the people to clear the way for a new leadership.
Rampant
crime, a crumbling economy and a revolution hijacked by Islamic
fundamentalists all contributed to the country's unrest, prompting calls
for change by many in Egypt, including those who had voted for Mohammed
Morsi. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
However, a statement
from Morsi’s office’s Twitter account quoted the deposed president as
saying the military’s measures “represent a full coup categorically
rejected by all the free men of our nation.”
Little has emerged about Mansour's background.
Mohammed Hamed
El Gamal, the former head of the State Council judicial body, in a
statement to Al Shabab, an offshoot of state-run newspaper Al Ahram,
said Mansoour was a “fair man” with allegiances only to “the
constitution and the law.”
“I am certain that he will respect the
will of the Egyptian people and legal and constitutional legitimacy … He
will be cooperative, understanding and execute the will of the people
as he has always done,” Gamal said,
according to a translation on the Muftah.org website.
Mansour
studied law at Cairo University, graduating in 1967. He also studied in
Paris and was a legal adviser to the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Trade
from 1983 to 1990, Muftah.org said. He became a judge in 1984.
Mansour became deputy head of the constitutional court in 1992,
the BBC said.
He was picked by Morsi to become chief justice and this was confirmed
by the constitutional court's general assembly on May 19.
Stowaway:
Pix 1: A teenage boy, Daniel Ihekina, who hid in the tyre hole of Arik
Air flying from Benin to Lagos. Pix 2: The boy being led away by
security agents.
