Egypt's President Mursi removes prosecutor general

 

Hosni Mubarak stood down in February last year following a popular uprising

Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi has removed Prosecutor General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud from his post.
 
Mr Mahmoud was instead appointed ambassador to the Vatican, with no official reason given for the switch.
But the move comes a day after 24 people loyal to ousted President Hosni Mubarak were acquitted of organising an attack on protesters during last year's uprising.
Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Cairo against the acquittals.
Battle of the Camels
Demonstrators accused the judges of "complicity" with the former Egyptian leadership and said they wanted to "purify justice".
The group on trial had been accused of sending men on camels and horses to break up a protest in Cairo in 2011.
In the incident, later called the Battle of the Camels, Mubarak supporters charged protesters in Tahrir Square.
It became one of the most notorious incidents of the anti-Mubarak uprising and left nearly a dozen people dead.
Some senior members of the old regime were among those accused.
They included Fathi Srur and Safwat al-Sherif, former speakers of Egypt's two houses of parliament.
Prosecutors said Mr Sherif, who was also the secretary general of Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NPD), had "contacted MPs, members of the NDP and financiers of the party, inciting them to disperse the protests in Tahrir Square by force and violence".
Mr Mahmoud was appointed in July 2006.
Officials quoted by Reuters said that an assistant to the general prosecutor would take up the responsibilities until a new prosecutor general was appointed.