CAIRO: Under heavy rain, thousands of lawyers from all over Egypt marched Thursday afternoon towards the presidential Abdeen palace in downtown Cairo. Lawyer Mostafa Hamdy, from Mahalla governorate, told Daily News Egypt that he and his colleagues decided to move towards Abdeen Palace and not to protest in Tahrir square to “symbolically cordon the president.” This is not the president's residence, but he uses it for official meetings. Lawyer Abdel-Qawy Ashmawy, who said he was from Menofiya, Mubarak's hometown, told Daily News Egypt that he protested because he wants “a state of law and constitution.” “The government did not respect either. It ignored the orders and verdicts of the Supreme Administrative Court and the Supreme Constitutional Court regarding elections … [and hence] the People's Assembly polls results were rigged,” Ashmawy said. The march kicked off outside the Lawyers' Syndicate on Ramsis Street then moved towards Abdeen while chanting anti-regime slogans. “Down with Mubarak,” the crowd chanted. “The people want to overthrow the regime,” they shouted. Each group of lawyers carried a big banner on which they wrote the governorate they came from. The lawyers were joined by citizens some carrying the pictures of the victims who shot by the police during the protests on Jan. 25 and the following days. However, the area was protected by the army and surrounded by barbed wire about 300 meters away from the palace. The protesters saw a central security truck about 400 meters from the palace where the policemen waved at them in salutation, while the protesters waved back. “[Our protest] is peaceful,” the lawyers said. After failing to reach the palace, they tried a detour which was cordoned off by six police trucks and army forces. An army major used a speaker calling on the lawyers to step back. “Go to Tahrir,” he shouted in a friendly tone. Neither the police nor the army used force to disperse the protesters who eventually retrieved to Tahrir to join the masses there.
Lawyers in black robes are stopped by anti-riot policemen as they streamed into Cairo's Tahrir Square, Thursday, Feb. 10. (AP Photo/ Mohammed Abou Zaid)
