CAIRO: Investigations of Egypt's Public Prosecution revealed that all the defendants in the scuffles of the presidential palace were captured by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They handed over nearly 137 people to the police describing them as “thugs”, claiming that they destroyed public property and committed acts of bullying against memebers of the group. The police subsequently referred the defendants to public prosecution for investigation. They were all released on Friday except for 4 who are kept under custody pending investigations, reported the State News Agency. According to investigations members of the Brotherhood insisted on detaining 49 other defendants, refusing to hand them over to the police. They handed them over to the prosecutors personally, arguing that these defendants were in possession of firearms and Molotov cocktails. The public prosecution carried out the necessary investigations and made inquiries with all involved parties, within the same context, the prosecution held extensive investigations with four people who were ambushed by the police on Saturday. They were heading to the area of the presidential palace. The items found within their possession were 3 cartridge weapons, large quantities of bird-shot ammunition and membership cards of the Freedom and Justice Party. Meanwhile, Nobel Laureate and a leader of the National Salvation Front Mohamed ElBaradei, said on Saturday, “The minister of Justice must immediately assign a judge to investigate the murder and torture which took place around the presidential palace.” The former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency added on his official Twitter account, “Enough with false statements.” The clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Mursi since Wednesday resulted in the murder of at least six people and injuring hundreds. Tension erupted when Mursi issued a constitutional decree on November 22 shielding his decisions from judicial challenges and escalated as he called for a December 15 referendum on a draft constitution written by an Islamist-dominated assembly.
