Global media are reporting that Egyptian police have arrested several of the top leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to one report:
Egyptian police have arrested a number of top figures in the banned Muslim Brotherhood, less than a month after the group elected new leaders. The website of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood says state security forces arrested close to a dozen senior leaders of the group in pre-dawn raids on their homes across the country. Last month, the group elected a new top leader. Among those reportedly taken into custody were Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Mahmoud Ezzat and two officials on the group’s high-level Guidance Council, Essam al Erian and Abdul Rahman al Barr. The group’s new leader Mohammed al Badie said he would not seek conflict with the government. “The brotherhood,” he said, “is not for one day an opponent of the government.” Egypt is preparing for parliamentary elections later this year and analysts say the government normally cracks down on the Muslim Brotherhood in the months leading up to major national elections.
Previous posts have detailed the background of the Mohammad Al-Badie (aka Mohammed Badie), the new Egyptian Brotherhood Supreme Guide.
For the Egyptian Brotherhood statement on the arrests, go here.