Top Brotherhood Leaders In Same Cairo Prison As Mubarak

Top leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement arrested on Wednesday after the army toppled Mohamed Mursi from the presidency were being held in the same Cairo prison as Mursi’s predecessor Hosni Mubarak, state news agency MENA said on Thursday.

Saad El-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and former speaker of parliament, was arrested along with Rashad al-Bayoumi, one of the Brotherhood’s deputy leaders, in a crackdown on the movement that began hours after the army ousted elected president Mursi.

The men were being held in Torah prison on the outskirts of Cairo, where Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal are jailed.

Mubarak is on trial on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ousted him. His sons face separate corruption charges.

Mursi was also being held by the military-led authorities, a Brotherhood spokesman and a security source told Reuters on Wednesday night. A security official said he was being held at a military intelligence facility.

MENA reported Wednesday night that the police were continuing efforts to arrest “a number of members of the Muslim Brotherhood who are accused of inciting violence and disturbing general security and peace”.