Egypt coup: Muslim Brotherhood leader arrested

CAIRO:

The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested by Egyptian security forces on Thursday in a crackdown against the movement following the ouster of president Mohamed Mursi by the army.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, was arrested in the northern city of Marsa Matrouh, near the Libyan border, although security sources said they did not believe he had been trying to flee the country.

Demonstrators often chanted against Mursi and Badie in the same breath.

Prosecutors also ordered the arrest of his influential deputy Khairat el Shater after both men were charged with inciting violence against protesters outside the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo that was attacked on Sunday night.

The new interim leader, judge Adli Mansour, used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood.

“The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2013.