Post date: Aug 20, 2013 8:28:37 PM
Egypt's Anti-Coup Alliance leaders say they are extremely concerned over the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood top leader Mohamed Badie and warn against spread of violence.
CAIRO, EGYPT (AUGUST 20, 2013) (REUTERS) - An alliance of supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Tuesday (August 20) they are deeply concerned about an arrest of aMuslim Brotherhood leader and warned that recent events and bloodshed in Egyptis destabilising the country.
Speaking at a news conference, Khaled Hanafi, a member of the Anti-Coup Alliance said they were all saddened about Badie's arrest.''With regards to the arrests of our leader, Mohamed Badie, we move as an alliance, he runs the peaceful protests, he is a symbol, we are greatly saddened about his arrest, and we are greatly saddened about him being taken to prison without being prosecuted, without any legal procedures, and this will effect us all,'' he said.
Hanafi also warned that Egypt could return to an era where there was no freedom of speech or expression.
On Tuesday Mohamed Badie, 70, the Brotherhood's general guide, was arrested in an apartment in Nasr City in northeast Cairo, the area where protesters demanding Mursi's reinstatement had staged a vigil for six weeks before they were violently dispersed.
He was charged in July with incitement to murder during protests before Mursi's overthrow and is due to stand trial on August 25 together with his two deputies.
Egypt is enduring its bloodiest week of internal strife since the monarchy was overthrown in 1952, with about 900 people killed, including 100 police and soldiers, after the authorities broke up Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo last Wednesday.
A spokesman for a pro-Brotherhood alliance said the death toll among supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, deposed by the military on July 3, was at about 1,400.
''Egypt is going through a difficult time and dangerous time, that it hasn't been witnessed for thousands of years, and due to that it is destroying its stability and unity, and it is entering into a violent tunnel, where there is no exit. The National alliance calls for the support of legitimacy, and rejects the coup, from this point of view, before the events of the 30 June, when the indication of the attacks on legitimacy, among those who opposed and conspired against the elected leader Doctor Mohamed Mursi,'' said Magdy Urur, a member of the Islamic Labour Partyand the Anti-Coup Alliance.
The turmoil in Egypt has alarmed the United States and the European Union, butIsrael and some Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia have urged the West not to punish Cairo's new rulers.
But Urur had a message for Egypt's army commander General Adel Fattah al-Sisi, saying people will rise up again, as they did before to topple former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
''And so we say to Abdel Fatah al Sisi he believed that he could rob the nation, with the support from part of the population in fake protests for several hours, so that they could act as a smokescreen to do a coup on the elected president, he will not enjoy power because people will rise against the coup in a civilised way, that will amaze the world, just as it did with the great revolution of 25 January,'' added Urur addressing journalists.
After decades as an outlawed movement, the Brotherhood emerged as the best-drilled political force after Hosni Mubarak's fall in pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Now the state accuses it of al Qaeda-style militancy and subversion, charges it vehemently denies.
The whereabouts of many other senior Brotherhood politicians are unknown. Those who had been posting frequently on social media have stopped in the last two days. Arrests have extended beyond Cairo, netting provincial leaders of the movement.