(Photo by Aaron T.Rose)
A press conference was held by the National Coalition for Legitimacy Wednesday in the headquarters of the Labour Party where a statement was read, announcing “Nationwide protests Friday” after calling for the “return of legitimacy”.
The Friday protests have been named the “people defend their revolution”. The locations of the protests have not been announced with a spokesperson explaining that “he himself does not know where they are heading”.
The statement during the press conference explained that “after the coup, Egyptians are being conned in a manner humankind has never witnessed” while explaining that the “coup authorities have committed horrendous crimes against humanity such as murder, burning, arresting political figures as well as civilians”
The conference was held in the afternoon by 10 members of the coalition. Khaled Hanafy, Muslim Brotherhood member and Freedom and Justice Party representative was present. Other representations from party members include Ahmed Al-Khouly from the Labour Party and Ahmed Abul-Nasr from the Building and Development Party.
Al-Khouly read “this statement will give examples of how the coup failed on a political, economic and civil rights level” explaining that on a “political level the coup regime is working to reinstate Mubarak’s regime and end the 25January Revolution.”
The statement explained that “female representation is at its minimum after the coup where a number of negative responses have been voiced when it comes to the 50 member constituent committee.”
Regarding the economic situation the statement announced that “annual bonuses have decreased, the credit rating of Egypt declined, Mohamed Morsi’s national projects were halted” before explaining that “multinationals in Egypt have been closing down in objection to the military coup while tourism agencies cancelled trips to Egypt in condemnation”
The statement explained that human freedoms are threatened where a “number of television channels are being shut down, false charges are being handed to political figures, killing of thousands of protesters” also adding that “religious institutions have been burnt along with bodies of dead protesters”
The press conference had a number of professionals’ representatives denouncing the current political situation, such as Teachers Against the Coup, Media Officials Against the Coup, Engineers Against the Coup and Students Against the Coup among others.
A number of questions were asked directly to Hanafy which he declined to respond to. In response to a question about a recent decline in protests Hanafy answered by asking “A civilian was tried by a military court and given a life sentence, how could this happen?” referring to a military court ruling on Tuesday.
Hanafy added that the coalition is willing to negotiate only if certain preconditions are met such as the “return of the constitutional legitimacy”.
Another question was asked to the representative regarding the decline in the number of protesters to which he answered “we choose to avoid confrontation with the military that is spread out closing every square”.
Four females were among the 10 members who held the press conference. The Teachers Against the Coup representative raised a picture of her niece during the press conference explaining that she has died during the Raba’a dispersal, blaming “supporters of the coup and the military for her death”
The coalition was formed after the 3 July ouster of president Mohamed Morsi with many Islamist based parties leading the coalition as well as various syndicates’ members.
