The wife of Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsy has told thousands of his supporters to remain defiant in the face of the military-backed government’s warnings that security forces will clear the ongoing protests, promising her husband “is coming back, God willing”.
Naglaa Mahmoud made her first appearance since the July 3 military coup. Mr. Morsy has been held by military authorities since then. His group, Muslim Brotherhood, fell from power after just one year of rule.
Ms. Mahmoud spoke to the crowds gathered at a sit-in at Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City suburb. She recited a verse from the Koran before delivering what she described as “good news”, saying Egypt “is Islamic”.
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“We are victorious,” Ms. Mahmoud told the crowd, saying protesters would overcome.
Initially, the Egyptian press suggested that Ms. Mahmoud was held with her husband in undisclosed location along with one of her children. Demonstrators at Nasr City cheered her arrival to the makeshift stage. She did not say where she had been since the coup.
Mr. Morsy is held with his top aides, a number of whom have been transferred over the past days to a prison in southern Cairo. They face charges including instigating violence in various incidents that led to deadly street clashes over Mr. Morsy’s rule.
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Mr. Morsy’s children also have joined the Nasr City protest camp and called for release of their father.
Reinstatement
The camp is the site of one of two sit-ins by Mr. Morsy’s Muslim Brotherhood group and its allies. Protesters demand his reinstatement, restoration of the suspended constitution drafted under him and the return of his Islamist-dominated legislative council which was also disbanded.
Egypt’s interim leaders and the military say they’ll stick with a fast-track transition plan that calls for elections by early next year.