Public Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has said he will stay in office, adding that he has not and will not resign.

Mahmoud addressed President Mohamed Morsy in a press conference held Saturday morning, saying, “I tell the president I will not leave my home or my work unless it is by an assassination.”

In a conference held in Abdel Aziz Fahmy hall in the High Court, attended by nearly 3,000 judges supporting him, Mahmoud said he applies the law and works with integrity, and does not have any quarrel with the Muslim Brotherhood or any other organization. He added that he would leave office only when he feels he is unable to work.

The president’s spokesperson had said late Thursday that Morsy was transferring Mahmoud from his Public Prosecutor post to make him Ambassador to the Vatican, as Egyptian law prevents his dismissal. Mahmoud denounced the move and told Egyptian media he would stay on. The influential judges club condemned the decision, seeing it as a violation of judicial independence.

Mahmoud said the president has the right to hire new consultants to assist him in establishing a new state, but not the right to dismiss the public prosecutor unless through a judicial authority law, “Not by a phone call.”

Mahmoud’s statement refers to the phone call that took place between him and the president Friday evening, in which Morsy stressed that he did not want to clash with the judiciary. Mahmoud told him he did not accept the position of Egypt's ambassador to the Vatican and that he will continue to do his job; he did not give details on the president’s reaction.

“Who said that an ambassador post is like the public prosecutor?” Mahmoud said, addressing Morsy. “To remove me, you need a document, not a phone call.”

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm