Morsi set to meet judges over power seizure

Egypt’s president Mohamed Morsi will meet senior judges today to try to ease a crisis over his seizure of new powers which has sparked protests reminiscent of last year’s revolution which brought him to power.

Egypt’s stock market plunged yesterday in its first day open since Morsi issued a decree late on Thursday temporarily widening his powers and shielding his decisions from judicial review.

More than 500 people have been injured in clashes between police and protesters worried Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood aims to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak era after winning Egypt’s first democratic parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

One Muslim Brotherhood member was killed and 60 people were hurt yesterday in an attack on the main office of the Brotherhood in Damanhour, the website of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party said.

Egypt’s highest judicial authority hinted at compromise to avert a further escalation, though Morsi’s opponents want nothing less than the cancellation of the decree. The Supreme Judicial Council said the decree should apply only to “sovereign matters”, suggesting it did not reject the declaration outright, and called on striking judges and prosecutors to return to work.

Morsi’s office repeated assurances that the measures would be temporary.