US URGES EGYPT ARMY TO FREE MORSI

     Washington, 6 Ramadan 1434/13 July 2013 (MINA) – The United States on Friday called on Egypt’s military to free deposed president Mohamed Morsi, as tens of thousands of his supporters vowed to keep fighting for his reinstatement.

     State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States agreed with Germany’s earlier appeal for Morsi to be released and was “publicly” making the same request.

     Morsi has been held in a “safe place,” according to Egypt’s interim leaders, and has not been seen in public since his ouster on July 3.

     Psaki said US officials had been in regular contact with all sectors of Egyptian society, and Washington was echoing German calls for “an end to restrictions on Mr Morsi’s whereabouts”, the Modern Ghana quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

    A German ministry spokesman said a “trusted institution” such as the International Committee of the Red Cross should be granted access to Morsi.

     As night fell on Cairo, tens of thousands of Islamist protesters prayed and broke their fast together on the first weekend of the holy month of Ramadan.

     They had spent the day protesting outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in the Nasr city neighbourhood, holding Egyptian flags and Korans, chanting against the military coup that unseated Egypt’s first freely elected president.

      “We are here to deliver a message to the military that we won’t give up on legitimacy. We will fight for our rights,” said protester Ashraf Fangari. “We are here to defend our votes. They were stolen from us.”

     Millions of Egyptians had taken to the streets to demand Morsi’s resignation — accusing him of being a puppet of the Muslim Brotherhood and of failing to fulfil the people’s aspirations of freedom and social justice. The mass anti-Morsi demonstrations prompted an army intervention and days of bloody clashes.

     “We will continue to resist. We will stay one or two months, or even one or two years. We won’t leave here until our president, Mohamed Morsi, comes back,” influential Islamist leader Safwat Hegazi told Friday’s crowd.

      Thousands also massed in support of the ousted president outside the University of Cairo, watched over by a heavy security presence. (T/P09/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).