Acting leader of Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmoud Ezzat, was arrested during a raid by the Egyptian police in his apartment in Cairo, Egyptian authorities reported on Friday.
The arrest comes as a part of a long-running crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood, which is Egypt’s oldest, most organised, and now an outlawed Sunni Muslim organization.
Ezzat, seen as a hardliner within the Muslim Brotherhood, was an influential former deputy to Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie. He secured the acting leader position after Badie’s arrest in August 2013.
Since 2013, Ezzat has been suspected of supervising numerous assassinations or attempted assassinations and a bombing. He has already been sentenced to life imprisonment and two death sentences in absentia.
According to the Egyptian Interior Ministry’s statement, Ezzat has been accused of being part of a ‘terrorist group’ and of receiving illegal funds.
Egyptian authorities accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of promoting terrorism but the Muslim Brotherhood has consistently denied this accusation.
Egypt has jailed thousands of members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood since the then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 with the help of mass protests. Mohamed Morsi was a Muslim Brotherhood member and was Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.
The Muslim Brotherhood gave a statement in which they condemned Ezzat’s arrest and said Ezzat has been arrested on false political charges and the organization will overcome such strikes and challenges.
Former Muslim Brotherhood leader, Badie, remains in prison in Cairo, over life sentences. Whereas former President Morsi died after collapsing in a prison courtroom in June 2019.