CAIRO - Egypt's Justice Ministry warned Wednesday that the military has broad powers to arrest civilians in what appeared to be preparations for potential protests ahead of two critical court decisions expected today.
The announcement was the first such warning issued since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak 16 months ago and came one day before Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to issue rulings that could abruptly dissolve Egypt's first democratically elected Parliament and cancel this weekend's scheduled presidential runoff election.
Some interpreted the decree as foreshadowing the military's plan to extend its rule past July 1, when the new president is supposed to take over.
Under Wednesday's announcement, the military will have broad powers to detain people until the government agrees on a new constitution, which will take at least six months.
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In one of the cases, the court is considering the validity of a law passed earlier this year that banned former members of the Mubarak government from running in the presidential election. If the law is upheld, the ruling would eliminate Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister, from the runoff and force Egypt to hold a new presidential vote.
But Egyptian law bars Parliament from passing laws that target specific individuals who haven't been convicted of crimes, and the court must decide if Parliament's ban was aimed specifically at halting Shafiq's candidacy.
The court is also expected to rule on whether Parliament itself is legally constituted. At issue is whether the Muslim Brotherhood violated the current constitution by encouraging its best known members to run as independents, while fielding a slate of candidates who ran under the banner of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.
