CAIRO: Egypt's newly elected President Mohamed Morsi is ready to take the official oath at the Supreme Constitutional Court on Saturday in Cairo, although controversy surrounds using the court, instead of parliament, as the site of his oath. The same court, only days before the final presidential run-off vote, ruled that one-third of parliament was void, leaving many to view it as the full dissolution of Egypt's parliament. Morsi's campaign had previously called for the oath to be taken in front of parliament, but with its status up in the air, the ruling military junta chose the court. On Friday, in a symbolic move to show his respect for the revolution that ousted the former regime in February 2011 and paved the way for his election, Morsi gave a ceremonial oath in Cairo's Tahrir Square before delivering a speech to hundreds of thousands who had gathered in the iconic square. The crowd went wild with elation as Mosri announced he would look into freeing activists jailed by the military, cheering for him and shouting “we love Morsi" during his speech at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Friday late afternoon. “We are seeing posters about activists who are tried in military courts and all of them have rights on me," he said. “I owe them to do my best starting tomorrow and I will do that, until they are free," the president continued. “Including Omar Abdel Rahman," added Morsi, commenting on the controversial sheikh who is serving a life sentence in the United States for being convicted of plotting the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. The blind sheikh's family has been participating in a sit-in for months outside the American Embassy in Cairo demanding his release. The Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi gave his first speech in Tahrir on Friday as hundreds of thousands gathered to meet Egypt's first ever democratically elected president. “We will have new foreign affairs strategies with other countries, but I also stress the importance of our country's dignity and the president's, no matter who he is," Morsi said addressing the massive crowd that stretched beyond the square and onto sides streets. Millions of Egyptians tuned to listen to Morsi as the Egyptian summer was in full blast. Morsi, in a spontaneous gesture, left his podium and showed the crowd he was not wearing a bullet proof vest. “I am not afraid, you are my brothers and sisters," he continued away from the podium and a few steps closer to the people. He later broke a military officers' protection chain around him as he was leaving to get closer to the crowd that had been cheering him loudly. Morsi also said he will not give up any presidential power to the ruling military council, saying it is his “duty to make sure the president enjoys full power." “You are the source of that power and you are the source of legitimacy," he said.
