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President Mohamed Mursi - Amr Dalsh/Rueters
CAIRO, Oct 25 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s Islamist ousted President Mohamed Mursi stressed on Saturday that he does not "recognise the coup," that he will not "retreat from the revolution" and that there will be "no negotiation over the blood of the martyrs."
Mursi posted a message on his official facebook page in celebration of the new year in the Islamic Calendar, which starts on Saturday.
The former president said he is "stressing [his] instructions to all active revolutionaries on the field, with their leaders, councils, coalitions, symbols, intellectuals and students."
"God willingly, I will not leave my prison before my detained sons," Mursi said. "I will not enter my home before my virtuous, detained daughters. My life is not more valuable to me than that of the righteous martyrs of the revolution."
The former president was ousted on July 3 2013, at the hands of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, following mass protests against his rule. Sisi was then occupying the post of defence minister.
Mursi has been in custody since his ouster. He is implicated in a group of court cases. The former president is being tried for inciting the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace during his tenure in December 2012, insulting the judiciary, espionage and escaping from the Wadi al-Natroun prison during the January 25 uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The ousted Islamist president addressed Friday’s attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula that left at least 33 security personnel killed.
"I will not forget my sons, the conscripted martyrs who were betrayed … after the coup turned the nation into seas of wounds which I know the revolution can heal," Mursi said.
At least 30 military personnel were killed in a suicide blast which targeted a security checkpoint in Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on Friday, security sources told Reuters. The explosion also caused damage to two military vehicles.
Shortly afterwards, a separate attack by unidentified gunmen on a security checkpoint in al-Arish killed three more security personnel.
The attacks were condemned by Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood in a statement released on Saturday. The Brotherhood, listed as a terrorist organisation last December, held the "leaders of the coup" which ousted Mursi responsible for the attacks. It also condemned "the deviation of army leaders from their main mission ..."
Egypt's security forces have intensified their security measures in North Sinai in reaction to repeated militant attacks that target army and police officials, which rose significantly since Mursi's ouster. The attacks soon expanded to other areas of the country, including the capital.
A fact-sheet prepared by Egypt's ministry of foreign affairs put the death toll for terrorism acts which took place since January 2011 and until April 2014 at 971, including 664 security personnel. The number of casualties significantly rose since then.