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Egyptian security forces have escalated their crackdown on deposed President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood by arresting its top leader.
The interior ministry said police picked up Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie near Rabaa al Adawiyah square, where more than 280 Morsi supporters were killed last 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.
Interior ministry sources told Al Jazeera Badie was moved yesterday morning to Tora prison, located in southern Cairo, where ousted President Hosni Mubarak and other leaders from his regime are being held.
A senior Brotherhood official, Ahmed Aref, said on its website on Monday that Badei’s arrest would change nothing.
“The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood is just one individual… among the millions who oppose the coup,” he said.
Badie and his powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater, who is in custody, will go on trial later this month for their alleged role in the killing of eight protesters outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters in June.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Cairo, said the arrest was “incredibly significant.”
“The arrest of the spiritual leader was always seen as a red line, even Hosni Mubarak never arrested him, but this military-led government is clearly ignoring that.”
Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Cairo, said Badie had been seen in public only once since Morsi was overthrown and that, with his arrest, most of the Brotherhood’s leadership are now in the custody of the military-led government.
“He made an appearance on stage at the sit-in protest at Rabaa Mosque,” the correspondent said. “That was the only time anybody saw him. He’s been in hiding since then.”
The Facebook page of the Interior Ministry also displayed pictures of Badie with a caption confirming his arrest.
“Carrying out the decisions of the public prosecutor to arrest and bring forward the general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, and through collected information and observation of movements it was possible for the criminal search apparatus under the direction of Cairo’s security [services] to arrest him,” the caption said.
A son of Badie was killed in Cairo during last week’s “Day of Rage” protests against the army-backed government and the crackdown on its opponents. Ammar Badie, 38, died of a bullet wound sustained while taking part in protests in the city’s Ramses Square — Al Jazeeraa
. ..appoint his deputy as interim chief
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has designated Mahmoud Ezzat as its interim chief, following the arrest of the party’s leader, Mohamed Badie, by security forces.
“Mahmoud Ezzat, deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, will assume the role of supreme guide of the group on a temporary basis after the security forces of the bloody military coup arrested supreme guide Mohamed Badie,” the website for the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, said yesterday.
The appointment of Ezzat, a deputy of Badie’s, to head the party on an interim basis followed immediately after the party’s leader was arrested in Cairo’s Nasr City on charges of inciting violence.
Earlier, Badie’s son, Ammar, was shot dead during a demonstration in the Egyptian capital.
Egyptian Authorties have arrested many Brotherhood members as the interim government pushes ahead with a deadly crackdown on the party and other supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, despite international condemnations.
Almost 900 people, including nearly 100 soldiers and police, have died in the country since August 14, when security forces of the interim government launched a brutal crackdown on thousands of peaceful pro-Morsi protesters in Cairo. Amnesty International has called for a thorough and unbiased probe into the August 14 massacre.
On Monday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply disturbed” by the death of 37 Muslim Brotherhood detainees on the way to a north Cairo jail, and called for a “full investigation to ascertain the facts surrounding this incident.” — PressTV.
Londile Moyo
Bongani Ndlovu