Police arrest Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Mohammed Badie in Cairo

Egyptian police have arrested the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.

Mohammed Badie was found in an apartment in Naser City, a district in eastern Cairo, close to where supporters of the ousted president Morsi held a six-week sit-in protest that was cleared last Wednesday.  

Mr Badie is to go on trial later this month, alongside his deputy, Khairat el-Shater, for their alleged role in the killing of eight protesters outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters in June. 

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood has said that Mr Badie’s arrest forms part of a plot against the 2011 revolution that saw Hosni Mubarak removed from office. 

Speaking of Badie’s arrest, Khaled Hanafi, a member of the Freedom and Justice Party – the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood – said: “He is of huge value to us and we are in pain. But the Brotherhood operates as a coalition on all levels of society and this arrest will not affect our operations and our peaceful right to protest whatsoever.” 

Mr Badie is just the latest amongst hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members who have been detained by Egyptian authorities since Mr Morsi – who came from the group – was ousted on 3^rd July. 

The violence throughout Egypt has resulted in hundreds of deaths, with almost 900 people killed since Wednesday, at least 100 of whom were police and soldiers.

At least 1000 people were left dead after security forces raided two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in an assault Human Rights Watch has called “[the] most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history”. 

The security crackdown has brought widespread international condemnation, with both the EU and US considering the withholding of aid.

Mr Morsi is currently being held in an undisclosed location under allegations that he conspired to kill and torture opposition demonstrators protesting outside the presidential palace in December 2012. 

Simon Wyatt