CAIRO: Former Egyptian presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi told BBC Arabic on Wednesday that the Egyptian people are being “blackmailed to either accept decrees that they refuse or suffer a constitutional void.” He said the constitution should represent every Egyptian as Egypt wishes. Commenting on the voices that called for a referendum on the decrees, he was quoted as saying, “how could the people choose either to create a dictator or overstepping the judiciary system.” In related news, former presidential hopeful Amr Moussa supported the suspension of courts and prosecutions, writing on his personal Twitter account that “this is to the Egyptian judiciary spoke, they are the conscience of this nation, is any one listening?” Moussa announced his support of the opposition to the decree protests, sit-ins and marches and called on others to join them. Police clashed again in central Cairo as Egyptian activists maintained their stalwart push to force President Mohamed Morsi to end what they are describing as a power grab. By dawn, tear gas was hitting near Tahrir Square and even the makeshift tent city that had been erected last Friday to put pressure on Morsi to step back from his presidential decree last Thursday that granted him power above judicial review. Tear gas and clashes continued throughout most of the day and into the night in Cairo, as the government appeared obstinate and defiant against a growing movement that saw hundreds of thousands take to downtown in their calls for Morsi to step down. Wednesday also saw the Court of Cassation join the ongoing judicial strike in protest to the decree that has many believing a new uprising is afoot. “We want an end to democracy and we want freedom from dictatorship in Egypt," 27-year-old unemployed Mohamed Said told Bikyamasr.com in the main square. Just off the main area, where hundreds of thousands were rallying, near the United State Embassy, police continued to fire tear gas at a group of protesters. The police were also seen firing tear gas directly at protesters' heads, using it as a weapon instead of only a dispersal agent. Egypt's ministry of interior reported on Tuesday that they had arrested 348 “troublemakers" in street battles between police and protesters. One protesters was reportedly killed on Tuesday in the largest anti-Morsi protests to date. According to Cairo Security Chief Osama al-Sagheer, who spoke with Aswat Masriya, among those arrested were reportedly convicts and ex-convicts. Sagheer said that 216 policemen have been injured in the ongoing clashes, some of them by birdshots, although it is unclear exactly how police were injured by birdshot. Bikyamasr.com's reporters and sources in and around downtown Cairo have not reported a single weapon able to fire birdshot at protesters. It comes a day after the ministry claimed protesters shot themselves and that the police were only using tear gas in an effort to disperse protesters. By late afternoon Tuesday, numbers in central Cairo's Tahrir Square are growing at a faster pace than earlier in the day, with anti-President Mohamed Morsi demonstrators hoping that a show of strength will help push the president to withdraw his presidential decree issued last week. That decree has become the focal point of protests against the president, who most in Tahrir over the past five days have told Bikyamasr.com is a sign “Morsi wants to be dictator over Egypt." At the same time, on Tuesday, as thousands are expected to pack the main square, protesters believe they have the moral high ground based on their role in the January 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. “We were here and risked out lives in the [January] uprising against Mubarak, not the Brotherhood, so this is our revolution and we will make sure it continues," said Hossam el-Arabi, a 39-year-old carpenter from 6th of October. Tuesday was the largest protests against Morsi since last Friday, when tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets. Egypt is facing a political impasse many say is similar to early days of the January 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
