Cairo : The police in Egypt Friday arrested several supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi for participating in anti-government protests and inciting violence, a media report said.
In various cities of Beheira province, about 130 km north of the capital Cairo, the police arrested 15 pro-Morsi protesters for shouting anti-government slogans and raising posters of the deposed Islamist president, Xinhua reported citing the official MENA news agency.
Three Morsi supporters were arrested on charges of inciting violence in the province.
In Alexandria city, northwest of Cairo, police arrested six protesters allegedly belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood group, from which Morsi hailed, after clashes between protesters and security personnel.
Also on Friday, six people were arrested in Upper Egypt’s Minya province over charges of breaking into and burning police stations and public properties following the security dispersal of pro-Morsi sit-ins last year.
In Suez, 120 km east of Cairo, two Brotherhood members were ordered 15-day detention over charges of planning vandalism and gun possession. The two were senior employees of a company that produces nitrate, a raw material for making explosives.
Some media reports quoted security sources as saying that the police arrested 20 Brotherhood loyalists in Fayoum, 85 km south of Cairo, in a murder case of a policeman.
Morsi was removed by the military in July 2013 after mass protests against his one-year rule. The Muslim Brotherhood has been blacklisted by the Egyptian new leadership as “a terrorist group” and its members have been banned by court order from running in presidential and parliamentary elections.
Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been handed lengthy jail terms and death sentences after speedy trials since Morsi’s overthrow. A massive security crackdown on his supporters has left about 1,000 dead and thousands others arrested.
Morsi himself is currently in custody for trials over the 2011 jailbreak, espionage, ordering the killing of protesters, insulting the judiciary and leaking classified documents to Qatar.