Egyptian prosecutor frees protesters demonstrating for constitutional reforms

Egyptian prosecutor releases detained protesters

CAIRO — Egypt’s prosecutor general on Wednesday ordered the release of all the protesters arrested during a demonstration calling for reform a day earlier.

Several dozen protesters briefly chanted for freedom in front of Egypt’s upper house of parliament in downtown Cairo on Tuesday, calling for an end to emergency law and amending the constitution to allow more open elections.

The protest was violently dispersed by police who beat demonstrators and threw them into waiting trucks. Photographers and TV cameramen covering the demonstration were also targeted.

The prosecutor’s office did not explain the reasons behind their decision to release those arrested.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry, which controls the police, said in a statement that 33 protesters were detained after defying orders to disperse and hurling rocks at police injuring 10 of them. It said most protesters were released shortly after they were arrested.

The ministry said it had already banned a day before the protest organized by April 6 movement, which it also says is illegal.

The ministry maintained that its suppression of the demonstration was not contrary to freedom of expression because the issue of reform is already being extensively discussed by the opposition parties.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the United States was “deeply concerned” about the arrests and called on the Egyptian government to uphold the rights of its people “to express their political views peacefully.”

“The people of Egypt should be able to participate in the political process and ultimately determine who will run and win Egypt’s upcoming elections,” Crowley told reporters Wednesday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch also voiced its concern, and condemned the “lawless brutality” with which authorities dispersed demonstrators, saying that 91 people had been detained.

Egypt has been under emergency law, which severely restricts civil rights, for 29 years during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who will stand for re-election in 2011.