Brotherhood Leader Arrested Amidst Sweep in Egypt

Military cracking down on former ruling party
By Newser Editors and Wire Services,  Newser User
Posted Jul 4, 2013 8:05 AM CDT
Updated Jul 4, 2013 2:38 PM CDT
Egypt Calls for Brotherhood Leaders' Arrest
Egyptians celebrate after Egypt's chief justice Adly Mansour is sworn in as the nation's interim president Thursday, July 4, 2013.   (Amr Nabil)

The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood has been arrested, as have many of ousted president Mohamed Morsi's aides, in a nationwide roundup of Egypt's former ruling party. The Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, was arrested in a town near the Libyan border, although security forces don't believe he was trying to escape the country, Reuters reports. He and his powerful deputy, Khairat al-Shater, have been charged with inciting violence.

Other members of the group, including Morsi, may face charges for "insulting the judiciary," al-Jazeera reports. Some have even been taken to the same prison as Egypt's last ruler, Hosni Mubarak, the New York Times reports. The crackdown comes despite newly installed interim leader Adli Mansour's assurances that the Brotherhood was "invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded." But the Brotherhood rejected the overture; the group called for a day of protest tomorrow, and a senior official said they wouldn't work with "the usurper authorities." (More Muslim Brotherhood stories.)

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