CAIRO
Pro-democracy protesters staged rallies in six Egyptian cities on Thursday to demand the release of detainees and denounce heavy-handed police crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.
Female members of the pro-democracy "7Elsob" ("7am") movement organized human chains in the canal city of Suez to call for the release of Morsi supporters detained recently for partaking in similar protests.
The group also staged a demonstration in the coastal city of Alexandria to denounce what it describes as last year's "military coup" against Morsi and demand the prosecution of officials responsible for killing hundreds of protesters ever since.
Demonstrators waved posters bearing Morsi's image and those of detained protesters, along with banners decrying "military rule."
The Muslim Brotherhood, the group which propelled Morsi to power, organized human chains in Meit Hamal village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya to demand the release of detainees and the restoration of "legitimacy" – the latter a reference to Morsi's reinstatement as president.
The group also organized a human chain on a highway in the district of Shubra al-Kheima in the Delta province of Qalioubiya. Protesters slammed as "sham" the trial of Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders on charges of staging a mass jailbreak in 2011, which kick off on Tuesday.
A group of Morsi backers also staged a rally in the Delta province of Gharbiya, before police forces dispersed the rally, using teargas.
Also in the city of Awsim in Giza, the pro-democracy Youth Against Coup group staged a demonstration, with members holding aloft posters of protesters killed in past confrontations with police forces and chanting for the immediate release of all political detainees.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president and a Muslim Brotherhood leader, was removed from power by the military last July following mass protests against his rule.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
