Egypt’s public prosecutor on Thursday ordered a probe into the top three leaders of the opposition on suspicion of trying to incite followers to overthrow President Mohamed Morsi, a legal source said.
The prosecutor, Taalat Ibrahim Abdallah, who was appointed by Morsi late last month, signed the order against the leaders of the opposition National Salvation Front, which led protests against Morsi’s drive to have a new constitution adopted.
The probe targets Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize laureate, Amr Moussa, former chief of the Arab League, and Hamdeen Sabbahi, the leader of the nationalist left wing. Moussa and Sabbahi were presidential candidates in June elections that Morsi won.
The National Salvation Front alleged frauds and irregularities in the December 15 and 22 split referendum on the new charter, which Morsi signed into law this week.
It accuses Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood of wanting to use the constitution to introduce creeping strict Islamic sharia law.
Abdallah called on Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki to name an investigating magistrate for the probe, which would examine suspicions of “inciting for the overthrow of the regime”.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s legal and parliamentary affairs minister announced his resignation on Thursday, the day after President Mohamed Morsi vowed a government reshuffle to tackle the country’s troubled economy.
Mohammed Mahsoub said he was stepping down because “many policies and efforts contradict my personal convictions,” according to his letter published on the Facebook page belonging to a leader of his moderate Islamist Wasat party.
He also criticised the government’s failure to recover funds allegedly embezzled by members of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
His resignation came two days after that of Morsi’s communications minister, Hany Mahmud, who blamed “the current situation in the country”.
Mahsoub, Wasat’s deputy head, had backed Morsi against the secular-leaning opposition through a deep political crisis over a new constitution that became law this week.
Weeks of protests and violent clashes preceded the referendum this month on the constitution, which was drafted by an Islamist-dominated panel boycotted by Christians and liberals.
In a speech on Wednesday, Morsi hailed the constitution and said he was mulling ministerial changes.
“I will deploy all my efforts to boost the Egyptian economy and I will make all the changes necessary for this task,” Morsi said.
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