Morsi U-turn allows "sacked" top prosecutor to stay in job

14 October 2012, 02:16 (GMT+05:00)

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Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi Saturday agreed to keep the country's chief prosecutor in his post - two days after dismissing him in a move angering many judges and trigging protests, DPA reported.

State television said that the Morsi would allow Abdul-Maguid Mahmoud to remain in his position after the Supreme Judicial Council, a state-appointed body, presented a petition to the president.

Morsi had said previously he was appointing Mahmoud as Egypt's ambassador to the Vatican.

"I will not leave my post unless it is by assassination," Mahmoud told reporters in Cairo on Saturday.

Morsi on Thursday sacked Mahmoud, who is seen as a remnant of the old regime, after a court cleared former senior officials of masterminding a 2011 deadly attack on protesters during an uprising against then-president Hosny Mubarak.