CAIRO – Egypt's main opposition group, the National Salvation Front, said Saturday it “completely sides with” calls to topple the ruling Islamists and called for President Mohamed Morsi to be tried for “crimes of killing and torture.” “The Salvation Front completely sides with the people and its active forces' calls to topple the authoritarian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood's control,” it said, calling on Egyptians to protest peacefully. The coalition, led by Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and former Arab League chief and presidential candidate Amr Mussa, called for “all those responsible for killings and torture and illegal detention to be fairly tried, starting with the president.” It ruled out dialogue with the presidency “before the bloodletting ends and those responsible for it are held accountable,” and before its demands are met. Clashes Friday night between protesters and police outside the presidential palace left one dead, and police were filmed beating and dragging off another man, following clashes last week that killed nearly 60 people. The beating was “an inhumane spectacle ... no less ugly than the killings of martyrs, which is considered a continuation of the security force's program of excessive force,” it said. A 23-year-old was shot dead and 91 people were injured in Friday's clashes, a medic said, while the interior ministry reported 15 of its men were wounded by birdshot. Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim has ordered a probe to “hold accountable” the policemen who beat the man, his office said. Prosecutors say the man, a 50-year-old construction painter sent to a police hospital, was found carrying petrol bombs. The presidency said it was “pained by the shocking footage of some policemen treating a protester in a manner that does not accord with human dignity and human rights.” It would follow the interior ministry's investigation of what it called an “isolated act.” There was no sign of any protests Saturday, as debris-littered streets around the presidential palace reopened to traffic. The odor of tear gas lingered near the palace, its outer wall scrawled with graffiti including “Topple the regime” and “Freedom.” In central Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, protesters threw stones and bottles at Prime Minister Hisham Qandil's motorcade Saturday morning, the Egyptian Dream Live television reported. The premier said in a statement that he was “confronted by youths and troublemakers” and had “preferred to avoid a confrontation between them and security personnel.” But the presidency has said security forces would deal with violent protests with “utmost decisiveness” and that it would hold opposition groups found to have incited deadly clashes as “politically accountable.”– Agencies
