admin
CAIRO. — Egypt’s government yesterday pressed its relentless campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, dealing a major new blow to the Islamist group by arresting its chief.The detention of supreme guide Mohamed Badie could throw the Brotherhood into further disarray as it struggles to withstand an onslaught by the army-installed authorities.
It quickly announced that a deputy, Mahmoud Ezzat, would assume the post of supreme guide on an interim basis, but has seen the ranks of its leadership thinned by progressive arrests.
Badie’s detention also raises fears of new violence in the country, where nearly 900 people have died in days of clashes between security forces and Islamist supporters of Morsi.
In the latest bloodshed, militants killed 25 policemen in the restive Sinai Peninsula, just hours after 37 Muslim Brotherhood prisoners died in police custody.
Judicial sources, meanwhile, said fresh accusations had been levelled against Morsi, who has been detained at a secret location since his July 3 ouster by the army.
And former president Hosni Mubarak won conditional release in the third of four cases against him, but remained in detention on the last case.
The interior ministry said police picked up Brotherhood chief Badie near Rabaa al-Adawiya square, where more than 280 Morsi supporters were killed on Wednesday as police cleared their protest camp.
It released a video of the 70-year-old, sitting impassively on a sofa, bottles of juice and water placed conspicuously in front of him.
The Brotherhood’s political party said the group had appointed deputy Mahmoud Ezzat to assume the role of supreme guide. — AFP.
Online Reporter