Thursday, August 22, 2013

Official Muslim Brotherhood Spokesperson Arrested In Cairo

Official Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson arrested in Cairo

Ahram Online, Thursday 22 Aug 2013

Ahmed Aref, the official spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood, is arrested in Nasr City, Cairo, early Thursday

Security officials announced Thursday that official Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson Ahmed Aref was arrested earlier in the day in Cairo.

Security sources told MENA, the state news agency, that Aref was arrested in Nasr City in his father-in-law's home.

Hours after the arrest, photos of Aref in custody, smiling with the police forces that arrested him, spread on Egyptian news websites and on social media.

The last update posted by Ahmed Aref on his Facebook page was about how the January 25 Revolution was the last hope for Egypt against dictatorship.

"The only hope against oppression is the January 25 Revolution. We will not give up legitimacy and there is no place for military coups in front of people looking for freedom and dignity. May God protect Egypt, its people and its army," Aref said nine hours before his arrest.

Aref is the latest leading Muslim Brotherhood member to be arrested in a campaign targeting leaders of the group across the country.

No official charges were announced following the arrest of Aref, who was reportedly transferred to Tora prison.

In parallel news, the general prosecution has decided to detain Islamist preacher Safwat Hegazy for 15 days pending investigations into charges of incitement relative to the presidential palace clashes in December 2012 and clashes at the Republican Guards club in early July.

In leaked audio recordings from the investigations into Hegazy Wednesday, he denied being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/79654.aspx


19 more Brotherhood figures arrested around Egypt

Ahram Online, Thursday 22 Aug 2013

Police arrest more leaders of the group in Cairo and around the country

A number of Muslim Brotherhood figures were arrested on Thursday, including the group’s official spokesman Ahmed Aref.

The arrests follow Tuesday’s arrest of Mohamed Badie, the group’s spiritual leader.

Aref was arrested in Nasr City, east Cairo, on Thursday. The prosecution ordered his detention for 15 days.

Hassan El-Prince and Fathi Shehab were arrested in Cairo, according to Muslim Brotherhood as well as security sources. El-Prince, who was arrested while participating in a pro-Morsi demonstration, is a leading member of the Brotherhood and was deputy governor of Alexandria. Shehab, a former MP for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, was arrested in an apartment in New Cairo.

Security sources also announced the arrest of Brotherhood leader and former MP Ahmed Abu-Baraka in an apartment in Sayyeda Zeinab in central Cairo. Abu-Baraka is a member of the Brotherhood’s guidance bureau.

Mostafa Taher Ghoneim, another member of the guidance bureau and a leader of the organisation for the Nile Delta region, was also arrested on Thursday.

Abdel-Moneim Mohamed Amin, a former head of the National Organisation for the Underground, the state-owned authority that runs the Egypt metro, was also arrested, according to Al-Ahram’s Arabic website. Amin is one of the Brotherhood figures who broke out of Wadi Al-Natroun prison during the 2011 revolution with Mohamed Morsi. Some of those involved in the prison escape are now facing charges.

Outside Cairo, in the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira, Brotherhood official Mohamed Nagui was arrested and charged with acts of violence including the burning of the governorate building and some police cars.

Professor Ashraf El-Tabei Ezzedine, a Brotherhood leader from Damietta, was arrested according to state news agency MENA.

Ezzedine is president of Al-Azhar medical school in New Damietta and was arrested in Shorouk hospital, which he owns and where he practices. He is accused of inciting violence during the clashes that erupted after the dispersal of the sit-in by Morsi supporters in Damietta at the end of Ramadan.

Local Brotherhood leader Abdel-Rahman Youssef was arrested in his hometown Suez, security forces told MENA, accused of inciting violence and of dealing with thugs to attack police and army.

In Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate, seven local Muslim Brotherhood figures were arrested, four of whom are preachers in mosques and were charged with inciting against the army and preaching discrimination, according to MENA. The other three were heads of local Brotherhood chapters in the governorate.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/79717.aspx

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