The Ministry of Interior announced Wednesday that it arrested 14 alleged members of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood group in Alexandria and Fayoum. The arrested face various charges, ranging from plotting against security personnel and judges, to possession of weapons, explosives, and setting fire into electricity towers, according to a ministry statement.
In Fayoum, six suspects were arrested after they formed a secret “terrorist cell using younger cadres in the Brotherhood group”. The defendants confessed that they shot a judge in Fayoum, killed a police officer, and set fire to an electricity tower.
In Alexandria, the ministry reported that eight were arrested for “possessing a number of birdshot guns and melee weapons, as well targeting government institutions”.
The ministry added that arrest warrants were issued for all the defendants, and that they are expected to be referred the public prosecutor
Recently hundreds of suspects, charged with “attacking state facilities”, have been referred to military courts by the prosecution.
In October of this year, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree which expanded the jurisdiction of military courts to include anyone who attacks the state’s “vital” facilities.
Various human rights organisations condemned the law, including Human Rights Watch, which stated that the law gives military courts “the widest legal authority since the birth of Egypt’s modern republic in 1952”.
Assistant to the Minister of Interior, Abdel Fattah Uthman, was quoted Sunday as saying in state-owned news agency MENA, that Egypt’s security situation is improving after over 10,000 people were detained since January.
