Abu Baraka and 3 more Brotherhood leaders arrested

Ahmed Abu Baraka, legal adviser for the Freedom and Justice Party and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was arrested on Thursday, Ahram Gate reported, along with three other prominent Brotherhood members.

According to the news website, Abu Baraka was found in an apartment in the Sayeda Zeinab district of Cairo. Al-Shorouk newspaper, however, said he was arrested in an apartment in the 5th Settlement in eastern Cairo.

Abu Baraka made his last media appearance on Monday at a press conference held by the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, in which he demanded an investigation into what he called crimes against supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.;Abu Baraka said investigations should be carried out by foreign entities as justice in Egypt is "unstable," Al-Shorouk added.

In a TV show after Morsi was ousted on July 3, Abu Baraka compared the ouster to polytheism and said it was a new episode in the rule of the Armed Forces.

Abu Baraka represented the constituency of Kom Hamada in Beheira Governorate in Egypt's last Parliament. He was also the Freedom and Justice Party’s candidate for the same constituency in the previous parliamentary election. He works as a professor of political economy at the School of Law University of Assiut.

Authorities also arrested Mostafa Ghoneim, member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, a security source told the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA). Ghoneim was arrested at an apartment in Nasr City, the source said, without detailing what charges were brought against him.

Abdel Rahman Youssef, a leading member of the MB, was also detained Thirsday, from his home in Suez. He is charged with inciting violence in the governorate and hiring thugs to attack military forces and citizens, MENA said. Youssef is a leading figure in the Brotherhood in Suez

Finally, authorities arrested Gamal Heshmat, a former member of the Shura Council and a member of the Freedom and Justice Party, in Beheira. He is charged with taking part in violence in the governorate.

Heshmat, born in 1956, started his political career in 1972 as a member of the youth movement of the Socialist Union. In 1977 switched to the Islamist movement, and he became a parliament member in 2000. It has been alleged that Heshmat succeeded in the 2005 parliamentary election as the Brotherhood candidate but results were changed in favor of a candidate from President Hosni Mubarak's party, the National Democratic Party, Mostafa al-Fiqqi.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson Ahmed Aref was arrested Wednesday night, and earlier in the week Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and Islamist preacher and Brotherhood supporter Safwat Hegazy were detained.