Egypt's prosecutor general to appeal his sacking

CAIRO - The man chosen as Egypt's chief prosecutor by President Mohamed Mursi will appeal a court ruling demanding he stand down, a fellow prosecutor said on Saturday.

Mursi appointed Talaat Ibrahim prosecutor general last November, to the dismay of the Islamist president's opponents who said he had exceeded his powers.

The decision to hire Ibrahim came in a constitutional decree issued in November that made all Mursi's acts immune from legal challenge. The president was forced to retract it after bloody street violence between his supporters and opponents that left at least 11 dead and hundreds injured.

A Cairo court ruled on Wednesday that Ibrahim must quit and give the job back to his predecessor, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud.

"Judge Talaat Ibrahim told us that he would challenge the ruling against him in front of an appeal court after he had reviewed the details of the ruling that he described as void, unconstitutional and illegal," state prosecutor Hisham al-Karmouty told Reuters after meeting Ibrahim.

Wednesday's court ruling came two days after Ibrahim ordered the arrest of several opposition activists accused of inciting violence against Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood.

Ibrahim's appointment had prompted protests by members of the judiciary and many courts suspended their work in protest. He tendered his resignation in December when thousands of prosecutors surrounded his office for several hours, but later withdrew it.

Reuters