Security forces arrested Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Mohamed Ali Beshr Thursday morning, the Brotherhood announced on their official website.
Beshr was the Minister of Development when Hesham Kandil was Prime Minister in 2013, and is currently a leading figure in the Islamist Anti-Coup Alliance.
The Anti-Coup Alliance released a statement denouncing the arrest. “The arrest of Mohamed Ali Beshr is no doubt a loss for the Egyptian political scene, but it will not affect the alliance’s decisions and [we] will insist on ending the bloody coup.”
There is no official statement about Beshr’s involvement in negotiations with the state about the Brotherhood’s re-admission into the state, but unofficial negotiations had been ongoing, said Ali Bakr, a political science specialist who works at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Political Studies.
Bakr stated that there are two explanations to Beshr’s arrest.
“Some researchers believe that the state arrested Beshr because of his call for violence on the 28 November. Others see that this arrest is a message to the Brotherhood, telling that if they will negotiate with the state they must do it on the state’s own terms,” Bakr said.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights also released a statement Thursday calling for Beshr’s immediate release.
“Calling for a peaceful protest is not a crime, and Beshr is a figure that rejects violence,” the EOHR statement read.
In a statement released on Wednesday, before Beshr’s arrested, the alliance stated that it is continuing the “revolutionary path” in remembrance of the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes.
