(AFP FILE/ CHIRS BOURNOCLE)
The National Security prosecution ordered on Tuesday the preventive detention of Khairat El-Shater and Mohamed Saad El-Katatni for 15 days for the investigation of espionage charges.
Both are being accused of espionage collaboration with Palestine’s Hamas movement. According to Aswat Masreya, the accused are facing other charges including “collaborating with Hamas to carry out hostile acts in the country, the attack on the police installations, attack on officers and soldiers, the storming of Egyptian prisons, sabotage buildings, arson in Wadi Natrun prison, aiding convicts’ escape, personally escaping from prison.”
El-Shater and El-Katatni are leading figures in the Muslim Brotherhood Organisation and Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). El-Shater was the initial presidential candidate for the FJP before being disqualified, and El-Katatni was the former speaker of parliament and head of the FJP. They were arrested on 4 and 5 of July respectively and sent to Tora Prison.
Other leading Muslim Brotherhood members who are being charged with espionage include Sobhy Saleh and Hamdy Hassan.
