Egyptian security forces have detained senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam el-Erian, the Interior Ministry says, amid heightened crackdown on the movement.Erian, the deputy leader of the groups Freedom and Justice Party, was taken into custody on Wednesday after Egyptian Special Forces stormed his house, according to the Interior Ministry.
He was arrested following an order by the general prosecutor, who accused him of inciting violence and aiding criminal acts.
Erian was the most senior Muslim Brotherhood figure not yet apprehended after the arrest of almost all of the groups top leaders.
A large number of Brotherhoods officials and supporters have been held in custody by the military and police forces since the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in early July.
On July 3, the head of the Egyptian armed forces General Fattah al-Sisi said Morsi was no longer in power following a military coup. Sisi also suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament.
In September, an Egyptian court banned the Muslim Brotherhood movement from operating as a non-governmental organization (NGO) and ordered all their assets confiscated.
In another wave of clampdown against the movement, at least 1,000 people, mostly supporters of Morsi, were killed and more than 2,000 Brotherhood members were detained in August, after the military-appointed interim government ordered pro-Morsi demonstrations to be cracked down on.
The decades-old movement formed a political party in 2011, months after the fall of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.
By Press TV
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