Essam El Erian
CAIRO: Egyptian police fired teargas at protesting students at Cairo’s Al Azhar university yesterday hours after authorities announced the detention of Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam El Erian, part of a crackdown against the Islamist movement.
Erian, deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party, was taken into custody from a residence in New Cairo where he had been in hiding, an Interior Ministry source said.
At the Al Azhar university’s main campus, students smashed windows, hurled chairs and covered walls of an administrative building with graffiti.
“Sisi is a dog. Down, down with the lord of the army,” one protester scribbled, refering to army chief General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who led the overthrow of President Mohamed Mursi.
One police officer yelled: “Arrest anyone you see. Bring me those kids. If you see anyone just arrest them right away.”
Students at Egypt’s top institution for Islamic teachings have demonstrated for weeks in support of the Islamist Mursi, whom the army toppled in July after mass protests against his rule.
Demonstrations there are a sensitive matter because the institution has historically toed the government line.
Egypt said yesterday it was committed to reconciliation and accused the Muslim Brotherhood, whose leaders are due to appear in court next week, of undermining efforts to resolve political turmoil.
“The government realises from its side the importance of reconciliation,” said Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa El-Din in a statement.
“Those who are until now rejecting or stalling any understandings aimed at achieving reconciliation and stability for the Egyptian people are the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The army toppled the Brotherhood’s President Mohamed Mursi in July.
Security forces killed hundreds of its members and jailed thousands, including Mursi and many other senior leaders.
Bahaa El Din has tried to find a way out of Egypt’s political crisis since he put a proposal to the cabinet in August that called for an immediate end to the state of emergency, political participation for all parties and guarantees of human rights, including free assembly.
State-run media have whipped up public opinion against the Brotherhood and helped create a climate in which there is little tolerance for the Islamist movement that won every national vote after a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Near-daily street protests, clashes between supporters and opponents of Mursi and rising attacks by militants who security officials say are linked to the Brotherhood have hammered tourism and investment in Egypt, a US ally.
Brotherhood officials, most of whom are in jail or on the run, were not immediately available for comment. The group accuses the army of staging a coup against Mursi and undermining democratic gains made since Mubarak’s ouster.
Many Brotherhood leaders have been detained since the overthrow of Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president.
He, Erian and 13 other Brotherhood leaders are expected to go on trial on Monday on charges of inciting violence. Reuters
