Egypt’s military junta has announced that it has begun releasing its civilian detainees today, following through on a decree issued by President Mohamed Mursi late last week. The order included a pardon for 572 detainees held after military tribunals.
Mursi has been in an ongoing power struggle with the military junta, which declared itself the sole legislative power in the country shortly before the election. The 572 pardons only amount to about a quarter of those still held by the military.
Mass pardons are a tradition for the start of Ramadan, and this probably enabled Mursi to make such a move as well as the junta to comply with it without it being presented as two big of a challenge to the junta’s continued claims of being able to detain people and charge them under military law.
Regional Human Rights Watch leaders issued a statement welcoming the news of the releases, but urging Mursi to order the release of all remaining civilian detainees in military custody.
It is amazing that the mantra of Brotherhood being opposed to Military rule dominates all the discourse. There is no such thing. Brotherhood and Miliary are on the same page, but Mubarak potentates still hold important posts. Their strongold is the Supreme Court. This is how it played out. The elections for the Parliament under the pressure of "secularists" (translate Mubarak holdovers, "civil" society, and western favorites for president, one a "populist" and another former head of Arab League). The result is something akin to US sponsored Kyrgizstan parliamentary model, but even easier to manipulate. In Egypt, a fixed number of parliamentarians must be "independent". Now this is the rule in Lybia as well. Supreme Court in Egypt waited to see the election results, and once their favorites lost, they shut down Parliament claiming that some independents actually belong to a party. In response, Military quickly took back legislative powers that were alredy transfered to the Parliament. Now, a cat and mouse game.