(Public Domain Photo)
Former Minister of Supply Bassem Ouda was detained for 15 days pending interrogation of alleged his role in the violence which ensued on Al-Bahr Al-Aazam street on 16 July.
The decision was taken by the Giza Prosecution office on Wednesday, state-owned Al-Ahram reported.
Ouda was arrested on Tuesday night in a Soap Factory in Al-Beheira’s Wadi Al-Natrun area, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior.
Ouda is accused of committing terrorist crimes, rallying, murder, attempted murder, displaying force and joining a gang which assaulted residents in Al-Bahr Al-Aazam Street on 16 July.
The incident which left five dead and 37 injured. Ouda was referred to the Criminal Court, along with Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, Brotherhood leading figures Mohamed Al-Beltagy , Essam El-Erian, prominent Brotherhood supporter Safwat Hegazy and the Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya leading figure Assem Abdel Maged, who is still at large.
State-owned News Agency MENA reported that Ouda was detained in Al-Mazra’a prison inside the Tora Prison Complex.
A delegation from the Giza Prosecution Office went to the Tora Prison Complex to interrogate Ouda and inform him about his referral to the Criminal Court, Al-Ahram reported.
The Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), responded sarcastically to the news of Ouda’s arrest. In a statement issued on Tuesday, FJP asked: “Was Ouda arrested for inciting bakeries to produce bread with subhuman standards?”
The FJP described Ouda as the “best supply minister in history.”
“The trend in the era of the coup is the imprisonment of the honorable and the loyal Egyptians, and the release of the killers and the corrupt who looted the people of Egypt,” the statement read.
Ouda was appointed as Minister of Supply in Hesham Qandil’s Brotherhood-dominated Cabinet in January 2013 and remained in his position until the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013 after a popular uprising on 30 June.
