Ten Egypt protesters killed as police cracks down on dissent

Ten supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi were killed on Friday during fresh clashes between protesters and security forces in Egypt, which has been dogged by turmoil since the democratically elected leader's forcible removal from office last year.

A source with the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, Morsi's main support bloc, said that Ramadan Oweis, 39, had succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained when security forces dispersed a pro-Morsi rally in southern Cairo's Helwan district.

Earlier in the day, the same source said that Egyptian security forces had attacked a pro-democracy march on the outskirts of Helwan with live ammunition, birdshot and teargas.

"Ahmed Nader, 19, was killed after being shot by live ammunition, while 30 others were injured, including one in a serious condition," the source, who asked not to be named, told Anadolu Agency earlier.

A security official, meanwhile, denied that security forces had killed any protesters on Friday, insisting that three policemen had been injured in clashes with demonstrators.

Earlier Friday, a source with the pro-Morsi alliance in Alexandria said that two pro-democracy demonstrators had been killed when security forces dispersed their rally in the west of the coastal city.

Mohamed Abdullah, 18, was fatally struck with birdshot, while Hossam Magdi, 17, was killed after being shot in the stomach during clashes with security forces, the source said.

More than 11 other protesters were injured, according to the source.

A security source, however, said the two young men had been killed in clashes between members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group and local residents.

Friday's was the highest death toll resulting from clashes between Morsi supporters and security forces within the past several weeks, as the ousted president's backers continue to defy a sustained crackdown by Egypt's military-backed government.

Pro-democracy protesters staged fresh rallies on Friday as part of a "third revolutionary wave" called by the pro-Morsi alliance, which has also called for a boycott of Egypt's May 26-27 presidential polls.

Egypt has been dogged by instability since the army forcibly removed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, from office last July on the back of opposition demonstrations.

Pro-democracy protesters have staged almost daily rallies ever since to demand his reinstatement.

Meanwhile, two suicide bombings struck South Sinai, one of Egypt's main tourist resorts, killing one soldier and injured eight people.

A policeman was also killed in a bomb blast near a courthouse in eastern Cairo on Friday.

"Egyptian bloodletting is forbidden," senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Ali Beshr told AA.

He went on to call for bringing the perpetrators to justice and urged the military-backed authorities not to rush in blaming certain parties for the bombings.

"The Muslim Brotherhood [the group from which Morsi hails] condemns all criminal acts that lead to bloodletting," he said, reiterating that his group is committed to peaceful activism.

Pro-Morsi prisoner dies in Egypt jail

Meanwhile, a detained supporter of Morsi died in his jail cell in Egypt's coastal Alexandria province, rights lawyers and a security official said Friday.

Gomaa Hemeida, 64, died in his cell in Alexandria's Borg al-Arab prison on Friday morning, a security official told Anadolu Agency.

In a Friday joint statement, lawyers representing Hemeida said their client had died as a result of "negligence" by prison authorities who had failed to tend to the inmate's deteriorating health condition.

"[Hemeida] suffered from diabetes, Hepatitis C and high blood pressure," the statement read.

"After prison authorities failed to provide him with medical care, his family urged prosecutors to let him be transferred to a hospital, but he died before this could be done," it added.

Hemeida was imprisoned on charges of "inciting violence" against opponents of Morsi, who the army forcibly removed from office last July on the back of opposition protests.

Although they had been searching for his son (who had not been home at the time), they arrested Hemeida instead, according to the deceased man's lawyers, who held security forces responsible for his death.

The security official attributed Hemeida's death to a sudden drop in blood circulation that caused his heart to stop.

A recent report by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, a local NGO, documented 21,317 cases of individuals who had been subject to prosecution since Morsi's ouster last summer.

According to the report, 16,387 of these were arrested while participating in political activities, such as pro-Morsi street demonstrations.

The report also documented 50 detainees who had died inside Egyptian detention facilities since Morsi's ouster ten months ago.

The authorities, for their part, deny widespread reports that detained supporters of Morsi and his embattled Muslim Brotherhood were being subject to systematic mistreatment – amounting to torture – inside the nation's prisons.