Egypt detains senior Muslim Brotherhood member
Egyptian authorities have arrested a senior member in the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.
On Thursday, Hassan Malek, a businessman, was detained at his home in a suburb of Cairo "on charges of funding a group that promotes violence,” Reuters quoted a security official as saying.
"The prosecution issued an arrest warrant for him, as he is implicated in several judicial cases," AFP cited an Interior Ministry source as saying.
Malek was arrested in 2006 under the country's deposed dictator, Hosni Mubarak, and two years later a military tribunal sentenced him to prison, along with another businessman and Brotherhood number, Khairat al-Shater, for financing a banned organization.
Both of them were freed in 2011 shortly after the uprising that toppled Mubarak.
The Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters have been under mounting pressure by the Egyptian government since Mohammad Morsi, who hailed from the movement, was ousted in a military coup led by the then military chief and current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, in July 2013.
The Brotherhood was later blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the Cairo officials in a bid to prevent its affiliates from running in elections.
International rights groups have severely criticized the government of Sisi for launching a heavy-handed crackdown on anti-government protesters and stifling freedom of speech in the country.
The crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters has left over 1,400 people dead and 22,000 arrested, while hundreds have been sentenced to death in mass trials, according to human rights bodies.
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