The following post is from Amnesty International’s Egypt team.
Demonstrators and security forces outside the presidential palace. ©Amnesty International
When he took office just a few months ago Mohamed Morsi promised to be the president of all Egyptians.
But hopes that he would take steps to resolve the current situation and give up the wide-ranging powers that triggered this latest crisis have been dashed after a bitter and bloody night of clashes between the president’s opponents and supporters.
The clashes followed an attack by the president’s supporters – believed to be largely made up of members of the Muslim Brotherhood – on a sit-in staged by his opponents outside the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis.