Supreme Judicial Council has urged President Morsi to retract decree they see as an “unprecedented attack” on judiciary.

Egypt’s judges have called for a nationwide strike in protest against a decree by President Mohamed Morsi granting himself extensive new powers.

After an emergency meeting on Saturday, the Supreme Judicial Council, Egypt’s highest judicial authority, urged Morsi to retract the decree they see as an “unprecedented attack” on the judiciary.

Under the declaration, Morsi’s decisions are final and cannot be challenged or appealed. His opponents have accused him of using the kind of authoritarian tactics favoured by Hosni Mubarak, the deposed Egyptian president.

It has also led to angry protests in the capital and other cities.

Sweeping powers

Morsi has also given himself sweeping powers that allowed him to sack the unpopular prosecutor-general and opened the door for a retrial for Mubarak, and his aides.

At a Judges’ Club news conference on Saturday, Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, the former prosecutor general, said that he was willing to go to court to dispute Morsi’s decision and warned “against any attempt to disrupt the work of the judicial system”.

Former prosecutor-general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud has said he is willing to go to court to dispute Morsi’s decision [AFP]

The influential group of justices also called for a “suspension of work all in courts and prosecution administrations,” in protest against the decree.

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Cairo, said the Judges’ Club objects to Morsi’s decree, which they say gives him more power than any president in the history of modern Egypt has enjoyed.

“However, the judges say … what is the guarantee that it is for a temporary amount of time. They say you cannot have a president who is accountable to no one,” our correspondent said.

In the government’s favour, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has called for a mass protest on Tuesday in support of Morsi.

Morsi’s announcement last Thursday sparked large protests across Egypt on Friday.

Minor clashes broke out on Saturday when demonstrators on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near Tahrir Square threw rocks at security forces, who fired back with tear gas.

“I don’t like, want or need to resort to exceptional measures. But I will if I see that my people, nation and the revolution of Egypt are in danger,” Morsi told hundreds of his supporters who rallied outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Friday.

“I don’t want to have all the powers. But if I see my nation in danger, I will do and I will act. I must.”

One hundred wounded

Buoyed by accolades recently for mediating a truce between Hamas and Israel, Morsi ordered on Thursday that an assembly dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood writing the new constitution could not be dissolved by legal challenges.

Liberal and secular members earlier walked out of the body, charging it would impose strict Islamic practices.

His announcement led to clashes in several cities between supporters and opponents of Egypt’s president, a clear show of the deepening polarisation plaguing the country.

In the largest rally on Friday, thousands of chanting protesters packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the heart of the 2011 revolution, demanding Morsi quit and accusing him of launching a “coup”.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square after opposition leaders called for a “million-man march” to protest against what they say is a coup by Morsi.

On Friday, protesters were calling for the fall of Morsi’s government and the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Among the protesters was Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On Thursday, ElBaradei – who also participated in the 2011 protests – tweeted that Morsi had “appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh”.

In Alexandria, Port Said and Suez, protests turned violent and at least 100 people were wounded in clashes between Morsi’s supporters and opponents.

The headquarters of Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party headquarters in Alexandria was set on fire by protesters on Friday afternoon, with the party’s offices have been attacked in five cities in total.