Egypt secures liberals' homes after calls for their death

Source: Reuters

Egyptian police deployed security at the homes of prominent liberal opponents of the government on Thursday after a hardline cleric called for their deaths and a secular politician was gunned down in Tunisia.

The death on Wednesday of Chokri Belaid, an outspoken critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government, was condemned by the opposition in Egypt, where two years of political turmoil has exposed divisions between Islamists and their secular opponents.

The same day, Egyptian liberal politician Mohamed ElBaradei - former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency - sounded the alarm on a hardline cleric's call for his own death.

The cleric, Mahmoud Shaaban, appeared on a religious television channel and said leaders of Egypt's main opposition coalition would get a death sentence under sharia (Islamic law). He specifically mentioned ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahy.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/07/us-egypt-islamists-idUSBRE9160R020130207