[This is a collection of news updates on Egypt compiled from multiple sources by the editors.]
MENA: More Sectarian Violence in Minya
Sectarian clashes have erupted in a village in Minya, upper Egypt, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported on Thursday.
The clashes led to the burning of four houses, MENA reported, following a dispute between Christian and Muslim families in which gunfire was exchanged.
The agency reported that security and military forces intervened to stop the clashes.
Attacks against churches and sectarian violence have increased in Minya and elsewhere in Egypt following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July.
Criticism has been directed at the lack of government response to the ongoing crisis.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Poll: Sixty-Seven Percent of Egyptians Satisfied with Sit-In Dispersals
A recent poll has suggested that sixty-seven percent of Egyptians are satisfied with the way the Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda Square sit-ins were dispersed by security forces last week. This left twenty-four percent displeased with the way the sit-ins were dispersed, and nine percent saying they cannot judge.
The poll, conducted by Baseera between 19 and 21 August, surveyed 1395 people across Egypt’s governorates.
It said that seventeen percent of respondents thought the protesters camped at Rabea al-Adaweya and Nahda were peaceful, while sixty-seven percent disagreed.
Only twenty-three percent of those polled felt security forces used excessive force in dispersing the sit-ins, compared to sixty-five percent who felt otherwise.
On 14 August, security forces forcibly dispersed the two sit-ins, set up six weeks previously by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi. Six hundred people were killed and thousands injured during the dispersals and in the nationwide clashes they triggered.
The dispersals left 288 people dead according to the official toll from the Health Ministry, while Human Rights Watch estimates the number to be much higher, at 377 dead.
This number was not found to be significantly high for thirty-four percent of the respondents, while fifty-six percent felt the causalities were high.
The high death toll was blamed on the protesters by sixty-two percent of respondents, while only thirteen percent hold the security forces accountable.
Baseera said it decided not to conduct the poll immediately after the sit-ins were dispersed to give the public a chance to gather information and better evaluate the situation.
Seventy percent of Egyptians said the time given to negotiations with the protesters was enough, while twenty-five percent said more time should have been given.
Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed disagreed with international reactions to the dispersal of the sit-ins, while only eight percent found the reactions justifiable.
Several countries have declared punitive measures in reaction to the violence of the dispersals. The US and Turkey strongly condemned the violence, while the European Union also said it will “urgently review in the coming days its relations with Egypt.”
Baseera, an Egyptian organization for researching public opinion, was founded in April 2012.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Abu Baraka and Three 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 Fifth Settlement in eastern Cairo.
Abu Baraka made his last media appearance on Monday at a press conference held by the National Coalition 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 3 July, 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 the 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 state 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 Thursday, 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.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]
Brotherhood Supreme Guide Badie Faces Fresh Charges Over Cairo Protests
Egypt`s prosecutors slam Muslim Brotherhood`s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie with new detention order.
Egypt`s public prosecutor on Thursday ordered the detention of Muslim Brotherhood chief for another fifteen days pending an investigation into fresh allegations, judicial sources said.
The new charges against Brotherhood`s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie include inciting murder and torture of protesters at a main Cairo protest camp set up by supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The preventative detention of the Brotherhood`s Supreme Guide would come into effect when he serves two other temporary detention orders on similar charges.
Badie faces an array of charges faces, including instigating murder, attempted murder and torturing anti-Morsi protesters in December 2012. He is also accused of inciting violence, damaging public and private property, and attacks on security and army personnel outside a Cairo barracks. At least fifty-one were killed when the Egyptian army opened fire on Morsi supporters outside the Republican Guard barracks in northeast Cairo in July.
Badie and his two deputies are due to stand trial on 25 August.
Mohamed Badie, seventy years old, was arrested Tuesday at an apartment in Nasr City in northeast Cairo.
Dozens of the Islamist movement upper echelons have been rounded up since the overthrow of president Morsi.
The White House criticised the move, saying it ran contrary to the military’s commitments to foster an "inclusive political process."
[This article originally appeared on Ahram Online]