The Ministry of the Interior has ordered that Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie be detained for 15 days following his arrest in an apartment in Nasr City early Tuesday morning.
Badie is being questioned by prosecutors in Tora Prison for his involvement in the death of protesters during clashes on 30 June outside the Muslim Brotherhood office in Moqattam.
Badie’s arrest and the Wednesday arrest of Islamist cleric Safwat Hegazy near the Libyan border are the latest in a series of arrests of top Brotherhood officials, including ousted president Mohamed Morsi, who has been detained since 3 July.
On Tuesday Gehad El-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, conducted an interview with the New York Times “over the Internet to avoid surveillance.”
“[The Muslim Brotherhood] came close to annihilation once under Nasser, but this is worse,” said El-Haddad.
In a Tuesday press briefing Martin Nesirky, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called on the Egyptian government to respect due process and work transparently.
“On the reported detention of hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members, including some of its leaders, the [office of the Secretary-General] said that everyone deprived of their liberty must be treated humanely and afforded all judicial guarantees under international law,” said Nesirky.
The UN has also reiterated its earlier call for the Egyptian government to allow UN human rights officers access to the country so that they can “assess the situation on the ground.”
