Egypt arrests 14 more Brotherhood leaders

Egypt's Interior Ministry on Friday said police had arrested 14 Muslim Brotherhood members as an ongoing nationwide crackdown on the Islamist group, from which ousted President Mohamed Morsi hails, continues unabated. In a statement, the ministry said arrests had been made in the provinces of Qalioubiya, Beheira, Menoufiya, Minya, Beni Sueif, Assiut and Sohag. Yet it failed to provide details as to how many members had been detained in each province. Muslim Brotherhood and security sources, however, confirmed that at least eight group members had been picked up within the last 24 hours. Magdi Qurqur, a leading member of the Brotherhood-led National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, told Anadolu Agency that former Brotherhood lawmaker Mohsen Radi had been arrested at his daughter's home in eastern Cairo's Nasr City district. Radi, head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party in the Qalioubiya province, faces "incitement to violence" charges in connection with recent clashes in the province, Qurqur said. Four more Brotherhood leaders were arrested in the Beni Sueif province south of Cairo following raids on their homes, Brotherhood sources said. Among those detained was Mohamed Marzouq, head of the local engineers' syndicate, the sources added. Farther south, security forces arrested Brotherhood leader Ahmed Nagi Khalil, who once served as adviser to the governor of Minya. He, too, has been charged with "inciting violence," a security source said. In the Nile Delta province of Menoufiya, meanwhile, a security source said that two wanted Brotherhood members had been arrested in a predawn raid. He did not provide further details. Egyptian authorities have unleashed a massive crackdown on Brotherhood leaders since the bloody August 14 dispersal of two "anti-coup" sit-ins, in which hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators were killed by security forces. Since then, Egypt's military-backed authorities have rounded up hundreds of the group's senior and mid-ranking members, topped by Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and deputies Khairat al-Shater and Rashad al-Bayoumi.