By AYA BATRAWY
FILE – In this Monday, June 17, 2013 file photo, Egyptian Shura council member and vice president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party Essam el-Erian speaks during an interview with the Associated Press in his office at the Shura Council, in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is ramping up calls for nationwide protests, urging people to take to the streets against the new military-backed government. In a pre-recorded message aired late Wednesday on one of Al-Jazeera’s Arabic news channels, el-Erian called on people to rise against the “failed, bloody military regime.” (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian state television and authorities say police have arrested two top Muslim Brotherhood figures, including an outspoken former lawmaker who has made public appeals for protests against the new military-backed government.
Officials say Mohammed el-Beltagy and former Labor Minister Khaled Al-Azhari were arrested Thursday in an apartment not far from the Pyramids of Giza.
El-Beltagy was wanted on charges of inciting violence, murder and terrorism. He was also wanted for involvement in an assault on a police officer who authorities say was kidnapped by protesters at a Brotherhood’s sit-in in Cairo. The sit-in was forcibly cleared by police two weeks ago.
It’s the latest arrest of top Brotherhood figures who have protested since the July 3 military ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. The group’s supreme guide was arrested last week.
