A day after the Egyptian army ousted Mohamed Morsi from the presidency and subsequently placed him under house arrest, chief justice Adly Mansour was sworn in as Egypt’s interim president.

Little is known about Mansour, who served just days as chief justice between his predecessor’s resignation and his own appointment as interim president. CNN has gone so far as to dub the 67-year-old a “mystery man”, while Egypt’s Masrawi website settled for “mysterious.”

Mansour was born in Cairo, where he now lives lives with his wife and three children. He attended law school at Cairo University and in Paris.

Mansour has been in the Egyptian judiciary nearly two decades, making him one of Egypt’s longest-serving judges. Prior to joining Egypt’s highest court, he served in state religious courts – responsible for delivering Islamic fatwas – and in civil and criminal judiciary posts.

The generals who ousted Morsi also suspended the controversial, Islamist-tinged constitution that the prsident and his Muslim Brotherhood allies hastily drafted and passed last year. Among other things, Mansour’s interim government will likely be tasked with rewriting that document.

Since taking his post as interim president, Mansour has sought to emphasize his commitment to restoring political stability and the rule of law. A video of a speech he gave today. He refers to the army’s actions – driven by massive anti-government protests – as a “correction” to the excesses of the Arab Spring revolution, which according to Mansour empowered the Muslim Brotherhood to act autocratically:

[Photo: AlJazeeraEnglish / YouTube]