Egypt Attorney General Mahmoud to stay on in his role

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has backed down from a pledge to reassign the country’s Attorney General after Abdel Meguid Mahmoud refused to step aside.

The two held a meeting on Saturday after Morsi moved Mahmoud to the position of Vatican envoy.

The decision caused an uproar among Egyptian judges. Earlier on Saturday, Mahmoud maintained the president could not legally dismiss him from the role.

“The president of the Republic has the right to appoint advisors and put his house in order in a way that suits him. But when it comes to the position of the Prosecutor General then the law and the Constitution have to be respected,” he said.

“I will defend myself and my position. I will defend the independence of the Prosecutor General and the independence of our judges; and I will not leave this office unless I am assassinated.”

Last week, a court acquitted several Mubarak-era officials who were accused of organising a brutal camel-and-horseback charge on protesters during last year’s uprising.

That led to public anger which spilled into the streets of Cairo’s Tahrir square on Friday injuring more than a hundred people.

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