CAIRO, July 12, (Agencies): Egypt’s military rulers sternly warned protesters on Tuesday against “harming public interests” as demonstrators continued to lay laid siege to Cairo’s largest government building and threatened to expand their sit-in to other sites in the capital.
The military also rejected criticism of its handling of Egypt’s transition to democratic rule, vowing not to give up its interim role in managing the country’s affairs until an elected government takes over.
It also pledged to produce binding regulations for the selection of a constituent assembly that will draft a new constitution, allaying fears by many Egyptians that Islamists - likely to dominate parliamentary elections due in September - would elect an assembly that would give the document an Islamic slant.
The military’s warning to protesters came in a statement issued ahead of a planned rally by protesters demanding a wider purge of members of Hosni Mubarak’s regime and bringing to justice police officers accused of killing protesters during Egypt’s uprising.

Protesters have been camping out since Friday at Cairo’s Tahrir Square, epicenter of the Jan 25-Feb 11 uprising. They vowed not to leave until their demands are met.
Earlier Tuesday, 30 men armed with knives and sticks stormed the protesters’ tent camp at the square, wounding six, before they were forced out of the square by the protesters.
The military statement, read on state television by Maj Gen Mohsen el-Fangari, was the strongest public warning to protesters by the ruling generals since they took over from Mubarak when he stepped down on Feb 11.
It was delivered in a threatening tone that suggested the generals may be close to running out of patience with the flurry of protests, sit-ins and strikes engulfing the nation since the uprising.
A growing number of protesters, meanwhile, see the ruling generals as an extension of the Mubarak regime and accuse them of showing too much respect for the ousted leader, who is formally under arrest but remains in a hospital at a Red Sea resort.

Ominously, the military statement called on Egyptians to “confront” any actions that prevent the return to normalcy. That was a thinly veiled warning to the protesters whose sit-in at Tahrir Square blocked traffic from the key plaza at the heart of Cairo. The protesters have laid siege to a major government building on the square and have threatened to expand their sit-in to the nearby Interior Ministry and the state TV building.
The military’s statement warned against any “deviation” from peaceful protests and demonstrations in a way that could “harm public interests” and against spreading rumors leading to discord.
However, it said the military’s response to offenders would be within the boundaries of “legitimacy.” The statement did not elaborate, but rights activists at home and abroad say at least 10,000 people have been tried by military tribunals for alleged security offenses since the army took over the streets from the police on Jan 28.
The military also expressed its support for embattled Prime Minister Essam Sharaf.
The prime minister has recently come under growing pressure from protesters to do more to purge the police, civil service and the judiciary of remnants of Mubarak’s regime and to speed up trials of those accused of corruption or the use of deadly force against protesters. Nearly 900 people were killed in the 18-day uprising.

In a nod to the demands of some of the protesters, the military said it would draft a set of regulations for selecting the 100-member assembly that will draft a constitution. Up to now the military’s roadmap to democracy only entailed a September parliament vote, the selection of the constituent assembly by the new legislature and presidential elections to be held late this year or early in 2012.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest and best organized political group, immediately voiced its opposition to the military’s new proposal. Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said it contradicts declarations made by the military earlier this year and that it deprives parliament of its legitimate right to select the assembly.
“The only party responsible for deciding who are the members of the assembly that will write the constitution is the parliament,” he said.
Egypt’s state news agency, meanwhile, said the Supreme Judicial Council, Egypt’s highest legal body, has decided to allow live transmission of the trials of Mubarak-era officials accused of corruption as well as police officers charged with killing protesters.
The footage will be relayed to screens installed outside courthouses for the public to watch, it said. Protesters have been complaining of the lack of transparency in these trials.

Sentenced
Meanwhile, an Egyptian court sentenced former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to a one-year suspended jail term and two other ministers from Hosni Mubarak’s cabinet were sentenced to prison for graft, judicial sources said on Tuesday.
This is the first conviction to result in a jail term for Nazif, who was highly regarded by many investors for driving market liberalisation measures that helped boost economic growth to about an annual 7 percent before the global financial crisis.

Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli, one of the most hated members of Mubarak’s administration because of the brutality of his police force, was sentenced to five years and former finance minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali received 10 years.
Boutros-Ghali, who is being tried in absentia, and Adli have both been sentenced in other cases.
The three were charged with squandering 92 million Egyptian pounds ($16 million) in public funds in a case involving alleged irregularities in the procurement of vehicle licence plates.
They were fined that sum and must return the same amount to the state, the sources said. Boutros-Ghali and Adli were fined another 100 million, the sources added.
Adli was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison on separate charges of profiteering and money laundering. Boutros-Ghali has also been sentenced in absentia to 30 years in jail for profiteering and abusing state and private assets.
An administrative court fined Mubarak, Nazif and Adli 540 million pounds in May for cutting mobile and Internet services during protests in January. Nazif was 40 million pounds and Adli 300 million pounds.
Egypt will allow a television camera into court for the trials of Hosni Mubarak’s associates to placate protesters calling for more transparency.

Judge Mohamed Hossam al-Gheriyani, the head of the Egyptian Supreme Judiciary Council, said in a statement on Tuesday that one camera would be allowed into each session.
Images would be shown on a screen outside the courtroom. It was not immediately clear whether court sessions would also be broadcast on public channels.
Separately, the state news agency said Gheriyani recommended moving the trials to venues that could hold more people.
Egyptians extended protests calling for swifter reforms into a fifth day, and protesters have been angered in part by the slow pace of corruption trials and closed court sessions.
Last week, a court cleared three ex-ministers of graft in the first ruling to exonerate such senior officials since Egypt’s uprising.

Detained
Meanwhile, Egypt’s military on Monday detained four US nationals in the northern city of Suez after they took photographs in a restricted zone by the Suez Canal, a military official told AFP.
“Three US nationals and their translator, a US-Egyptian dual citizen, were detained in the Port Tawfiq harbour,” the official said, without identifying them.
“Residents of Suez had seen the four taking pictures and informed the military authorities. They are not reporters for any media and did not have permission to take photographs,” the official said.
Tensions have been high in Suez after a court last week confirmed the release on bail of police accused of killing protesters in the city during the uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.
The army was forced to intervene on Sunday to clear several hundred protesters who were blocking a highway outside the city, while last Wednesday hundreds of people torched police cars and tried to storm government buildings in Suez.
The city is located near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, a strategic hub of global maritime transport.

The seven police released on bail are among 14 facing trial over the killing of 17 protesters and wounding of 300 others. The other seven are on the run and being tried in absentia.
The case comes amid heightened tensions in Egypt over the handling of legal proceedings against security forces who used deadly violence in the uprising, killing 846 civilians and wounding thousands, according to official figures.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf on Monday announced a government reshuffle within one week amid mounting pressure from protesters over the slow pace of reform.
He set a deadline of July 15 for the dismissal of police officers accused of killing protesters during the uprising that ousted Mubarak and called on the judiciary to proceed with “open trials for all former regime officials and those accused of killing protesters.”
Egypt is holding Ilan Grapel, a US-Israeli dual national, on suspicion of spying for Israel.
American-born Grapel was arrested last month in a Cairo hotel. He has been accused of being an agent with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and of sowing sectarian strife and chaos in Egypt.