By IANS,
Cairo: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has ousted Prosecutor General Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, the state TV reported Thursday.
Ahmed Abdel Atty, chief of the presidential office, said Morsi’s decision to sack the general prosecutor was taken in the interest of the country, although the prosecutor did not participate in the investigations into the “camel battle” case, Xinhua reported.
The decision came a day after the Criminal Court decided to acquit all defendants accused of attacking peaceful protesters at Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the anti-government protests last year.
“The general situation in Egypt is complicated and all things are more or less related to each other. So we can’t say the ( president’s) decision has no relation to the court decision,” Atty said during a press conference.
A total of 24 top officials of the dissolved former ruling National Democratic Party, including former speakers of Shura Council (upper house) and People’s Assembly (lower house), Safwat Sherief and Ahmed Fathy Serour, were charged for murdering demonstrators in February 2011 at Tahrir Square.
Tahrir Square was the epicentre of protests that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak.
The officials were accused of hiring dozens of men to ride horses or camels to frighten and disperse protesters in the square. The attack had killed at least 11 people and injured thousands of others.
On Wednesday, the court, however, noted that the reasons for its decision to acquit the defendants were insufficient evidences and unreliable witnesses.