CAIRO, November 27 (RIA Novosti) – Tens of thousands of people converged on Tuesday on Tahrir Square in Cairo to protest the highly-controversial decree that grants Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi sweeping new powers.
Ahead of Tuesday's rally, called by leftists, liberals and other opposition groups, protesters clashed with riot police on streets around Tahrir Square. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds, while protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at police cordons.
A 52-year-old opposition activist died of a heart attack after inhaling tear gas, bringing the death toll in the current Egyptian unrest to two people. Clashes between Morsi opponents and supporters on Sunday left one person dead in the Nile Delta City of Damanhour.
Mass rallies are also being held for the fifth consecutive day in Alexandria and other Egyptian cities.
A rival rally in Cairo in support of Morsi, organized by Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, was earlier called off to "avoid potential unrest."
The new constitutional declaration, issued on Thursday, expands Morsi’s executive powers and puts him above the judiciary, declaring that the courts are barred from challenging his decisions. It also exempts the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly writing Egypt's new constitution from judicial review.
The decree has immediately sparked protests by opposition and even moderate Islamists throughout the country.
Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, called Morsi’s move “an unprecedented attack on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings,” while prominent opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has accused Morsi of usurping authority and becoming a "new pharaoh."
Egyptian police said on Tuesday that about 350 protesters had been arrested in Cairo alone since the start of the unrest last week. At least a hundred of them remain in custody while the rest were set free.
On Sunday, Morsi released a statement saying that his new powers were "temporary and necessary to put Egypt on the right path to democracy," but the protesters insist they would not budge until Morsi reverses his decision.
