Jama’a al-Islamiya has said it is coordinating with various revolutionary forces and Islamist political parties to take legal and popular action to dismiss Public Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud.
“Remnants of the former authoritarian regime should have no place after the revolution,” said the group’s spokesperson, Tarek al-Zomor. “We need a new public prosecutor.”
Zomor explained that the group would try to persuade Mahmoud to resign, or request the president to decree a limit of four years for the public prosecutor’s term. “We will hold a vigil outside the public prosecutor’s office on Friday to force him to resign,” he said.
Assem Abdel Maged, a member of Jama’a al-Islamiya’s Shura Council, said the public prosecutor is primarily responsible for the failure to realize the rights of the martyrs, and for the imprisonment of Hosni Mubarak’s opposition.
President Mohamed Morsy fired Mahmoud last Thursday, naming him Egypt’s ambassador to the Vatican, but Mahmoud refused to step down arguing that a judicial official cannot be dismissed by the executive. Morsy and Mahmoud agreed Saturday that Mahmoud would remain in his post.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
