By Kathryn Maureen Ryan

Impunity Watch, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Egyptian State media reported that an improvised explosive device was detonated at a police station in Downtown Cairo wounding two workers Monday. Three people on a motorcycle reportedly threw a homemade grenade style explosive devise at the police station. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

The attack came just a day after Egypt’s state run news agency reported Sunday that former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will stand trial for charges of inciting murder and violence. The military backed government is essentially holding Morsi responsible for the deaths of protesters and other civilians since security forces began violently cracking down on protesters. The ousted President is also being investigated for his escape from prison during the 2011 uprising against former president Mubarak. While no formal charges have been brought, he has been accused of murder and conspiring with Hamas during his escape.

Egyptian security forces have killed hundreds of supporters of President Morsi since opponents of the coup began protesting the government after Morsi’s removal from power on July 3. Like the former president many of the protesters have been accused by the government of inciting violence and even coming terrorist attacks.

As part of its crackdown on supports of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist political parties the military backed government has been excluding Islamists from the transitional process. The transitional government recently named a constituent assembly with almost no Islamists members. The government gave the assembly 60 days to review amendments that would repeal Islamic policies established over the last year by the Muslim Brotherhood led government and other more hard-line Islamic parties under President Morsi. The transitional government has also favoured policies that would officially raise the Egyptian military back to the elite status enjoyed under the presidency of the Military backed Dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The Nour Party has complained that the transitional government has had a deplorable policy of “exclusion of the Islamist current” in the commission of the review panel. The Nour Party was founded after the downfall of President Mubarak. The party also noted that the committee excluded members of the youth movements that ignited the revolution through social media driven demonstrations beginning on January 25, 2011.

The Egyptian government has also taken steps to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood, returning it to the illegal status placed on the party, which won a majority of votes in Egypt’s polar vote that was forced on it under Mubarak. A judicial panel has advised an Egyptian court to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood as a legal non-governmental organization, the mood would effectively outlaw former President Mohamed Morsi’s Political party.

 

For further information please see:

Reuters – Egypt Sends Mursi to Trial as New Constitution Advances – 1 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Bomb Blast Hits Cairo Police Station – 2 September 2013

Al Jazeera – Egypt Panel Urges Brotherhood Dissolution – 2 September 2013

CNN International – Egypt to Try Former President Mohamed Morsy in Protest Deaths – 2 September 2013

NBCNews – Improvised Bomb Wounds Two at Cairo Police Station – 2 September 2013