38 prisoners die as Egypt violence escalates

Some 38 Muslim Brotherhood supporters died in disputed circumstances at a prison yesterday, as the leader of Egypt’s powerful army warned he would not tolerate violence, urging Islamists to change course.

Latest government figures said at least 830 people had died since last Wednesday in clashes pitting followers of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi against security forces in the worst political bloodletting to rock Egypt in recent history.

Police have rounded up hundreds of Morsi’s Brotherhood backers in recent days, in an effort by the army-backed government to end weeks of protests and to stamp their authority on the deeply polarised nation. The government said 70 members of the security forces were among the dead.

The Interior Ministry said a group of detainees had tried to escape from a prison on the outskirts of Cairo, adding that an undisclosed number had been suffocated by tear gas when police moved in to free an officer taken hostage.

Three sources put the number of dead at 38.

Offering a very different version of events, a legal source said that men had died from asphyxiation in the back of a crammed police van while being drive to prison.

Vowing to take a firm stand against violence, army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi struck an apparently inclusive note in a speech broadcast on television, telling Morsi’s supporters: “There is room for everyone in Egypt.” But, in his first public comments since the latest violence, he urged them to “revise their national position and realise that legitimacy belongs to the people to give it to whoever they want and take it from them whenever they want”.

The Brotherhood, under huge pressure since police stormed its protest camps in Cairo and killed hundreds of its supporters on Wednesday, staged several more marches across the country to demand the reinstatement of Morsi, ousted on July 3.

Offering a glimpse at previously unreported violence, state news agency MENA said 79 people died on Saturday across Egypt and 549 were wounded.

The clampdown has brought the military rulers criticism from Egypt’s major ally, the US, and the European Union, but support from wealthy Arab states led by Saudi Arabia.