Friday clashes kill 5 including journalist

Five died and hundreds were injured in clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and police on Friday, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. 

Mayada Ashraf, 22, a journalist with privately owned Al-Dostour newspaper, was killed in clashes between police and Brotherhood supporters at the Alf Maskan area in Ain Shams, east of Cairo. A number of journalists, including Diaa Rashwan, the head of the Journalists Syndicate, gathered near the Heliopolis hospital where Ashraf was transferred, state-owned Al-Ahram reported. 

Rashwan said that those who caused the journalist's death must come to justice, Al-Ahram reported. He pledged to pursue the case, adding that he has already instigated contact with the prosecutor general. 

A statement from the Committee to Defend Media Independence, which monitors the Journalists Syndicate condemned Ashraf's death and said that journalists are paying for the price for political conflict in the country. The group called on all parties to refrain from using Ashraf's death for political ends by trading accusations. 

Al-Dostour newspaper said in its statement that Ashraf was one of their young reporters who launched the Dostour portal. Ashraf's employers described her as a hard-working journalist who sought to tell truth regardless of all political conflicts. 

Ashraf adds to the list of journalists dying as they covered the conflict that followed the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the ensuing security crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. At least six journalists died as they covered clashes between police and Brotherhood supporters last year, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, which ranked Egypt as one of the countries in which journalist freedom and safety declined most in 2013.

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood had called for protests on Friday to stand against Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to run for presidential office. Sisi, who resigned from his position as minister of defense on Wednesday to be able to take part in elections, ousted former President and Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Mohamed Morsi from power last July after mass protests calling for early presidential elections. 

Protests across the country turned violent on Friday, and over 80 arrested according to the Interior Ministry's statement.