Egypt arrests head of Muslim Brotherhood for ‘inciting murder’

Hindustan Times

Egyptian authorities said on Tuesday they had arrested the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, as they stepped up a campaign to crush the party of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The arrest stoked fears of an escalation in the already tense situation in Egypt, where nearly 900 people have died in days of clashes nationwide 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.

The interior ministry said police picked up Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, 70, near Rabaa al-Adawiya square, where more than 200 Morsi supporters were killed on Wednesday as police cleared their protest camp.

Senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, including Badie, have been accused by Egypt's military-backed authorities of inciting the violence that the deaths of protesters.

And judicial sources said fresh accusations had been levelled against Morsi himself, who has been held in a secret location since the military deposed him on July 3.

Meanwhile, former president Hosni Mubarak won conditional release in the third of four cases against him, but remained in detention on the fourth.