More Brotherhood leaders arrested, assets frozen

The Public Prosecution has ordered the detention of Mahdi Akef, former supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, for four days pending investigation under suspicion of insulting the judiciary, the state news agency MENA reported on Sunday.

The prosecutor also ordered the release of Saad al-Katatny, speaker of the dissolved parliament and the president of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, on LE5,000, but he remained in custody for investigation in other cases.

Akef, Katatny, and other Brotherhood leaders are being investigated for inciting murder for the purpose of terrorizing demonstrators in March, when clashes took place in front of the Brotherhood's main headquarters in Cairo's Moqattam neighborhood. Nine protestors were killed.

Meanwhile, Al-Ahram gate has reported that the public prosecution is freezing the assets of several Brotherhood and other Islamist leaders, including current Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, his deputy Khairat al-Shater, Brotherhood Secretary General Ezzat Ibrahim, Katatny, Badie's second deputy Rashad Bayoumi, FJP vice head Essam al-Erian, preacher Safwat Hegazi, head of the FJP's executive office Mohamed al-Beltagy, Wasat Party vice head Essam Sultan, Salafi leader Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, and Mohamed al-Omda, a presenter on a TV Islamic channel.

The Public Prosecution also requested that the interior minister, the heads of the General Intelligence and Military Intelligence, and the National Security Agency identify the perpetrators of the clashes that erupted around the presidential palace in December 2012.