Cairo — Egypt’s new military-led government took further steps on Wednesday to cripple the Muslim Brotherhood in the week since the country’s Islamist president was deposed and detained, issuing formal arrest warrants for the group’s top spiritual leader and at least nine other senior figures accused of inciting deadly protests.
The general prosecutor’s office said Mohamed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, along with top officials in the group’s Freedom and Justice Party and allied Islamist political parties, were wanted for “planning, inciting and aiding criminal acts” outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where Mohamed Morsi, the ousted president, was believed to be held in military custody.
Soldiers and police officers killed at least 51 people and wounded hundreds early Monday near the headquarters, most of them unarmed demonstrators who had been demanding the release and reinstatement of Mr. Morsi, the first freely elected president in Egypt. The military said armed protesters instigated the violence, the deadliest since the the 2011 Egyptian revolution, which overthrew Mr. Morsi’s autocratic predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates have called Mr. Morsi’s ouster a military coup that has reinvigorated the security apparatus of the Mubarak era. They have rejected as lies the military’s claims that it wants to quickly return to full civilian control and create an inclusive government.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that they had also ordered 200 people held in custody for at least 15 days pending further investigation into their suspected role in Monday’s mayhem and released 446 others on bail, according to Ahram Online, the Web site of Egypt’s leading newspaper.
At the same time the new interim government appeared to be gaining more credibility — and generous offers of financial aid — from its autocratic Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf who were happy to see the Muslim Brotherhood’s political ascendance blunted in Egypt. Kuwait announced it would provide an aid package worth $4 billion, adding to the $8 billion in grants, loans and fuel promised on Tuesday by Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates.
The donations are needed urgently because the turmoil surrounding Mr. Morsi’s overthrow has pushed the teetering Egyptian economy closer to the brink of collapse.
Although the interim government enlisted internationally recognized figures to serve as its public face and promised swift elections, the transitional plan it introduced on Tuesday was widely criticized inside Egypt as muddled, authoritarian and rushed.
The so-called road map, in the form of a “constitutional declaration” by the military-appointed president, elicited immediate opposition from civilian leaders across the political spectrum, including the liberals and activists who sought the ouster of President Morsi, the faction of ultraconservative Islamists who joined them and the many thousands protesting to demand his reinstatement.
The declaration, however, made clear that the government drew its authority only from the military commander who executed the takeover, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi. The interim president, Adli Mansour, a senior judge, cited the general’s brief statement as the basis of his own authority, and in confirmation the general’s words were printed as law in the official Gazette.
“It is now officially a coup,” Nathan Brown, a political scientist specializing in Egyptian law at George Washington University, wrote in assessing the text.
The signs of a widening crackdown on the Brotherhood and its affiliates intensified on Tuesday, when Brotherhood officials said that they had lost contact with about 250 members of their leadership, in addition to the dozens — including Mr. Morsi — known to be detained.
In the first official word about Mr. Morsi’s circumstances in custody, the caretaker foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, said on Tuesday in an interview on CNN that he was “not free to go around, but he is treated very well.” Mr. Amr said he did not know Mr. Morsi’s precise whereabouts but defended the military’s response to the protests outside the Republican Guard headquarters on Monday. “I do not believe that the military personnel opened fire at peaceful demonstrators,” he said.
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Ben Hubbard, Kareem Fahim and Sarah Mousa from Cairo.
The general prosecutor’s office said Mohamed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, along with top officials in the group’s Freedom and Justice Party and allied Islamist political parties, were wanted for “planning, inciting and aiding criminal acts” outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where Mohamed Morsi, the ousted president, was believed to be held in military custody.
Soldiers and police officers killed at least 51 people and wounded hundreds early Monday near the headquarters, most of them unarmed demonstrators who had been demanding the release and reinstatement of Mr. Morsi, the first freely elected president in Egypt. The military said armed protesters instigated the violence, the deadliest since the the 2011 Egyptian revolution, which overthrew Mr. Morsi’s autocratic predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates have called Mr. Morsi’s ouster a military coup that has reinvigorated the security apparatus of the Mubarak era. They have rejected as lies the military’s claims that it wants to quickly return to full civilian control and create an inclusive government.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that they had also ordered 200 people held in custody for at least 15 days pending further investigation into their suspected role in Monday’s mayhem and released 446 others on bail, according to Ahram Online, the Web site of Egypt’s leading newspaper.
At the same time the new interim government appeared to be gaining more credibility — and generous offers of financial aid — from its autocratic Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf who were happy to see the Muslim Brotherhood’s political ascendance blunted in Egypt. Kuwait announced it would provide an aid package worth $4 billion, adding to the $8 billion in grants, loans and fuel promised on Tuesday by Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates.
The donations are needed urgently because the turmoil surrounding Mr. Morsi’s overthrow has pushed the teetering Egyptian economy closer to the brink of collapse.
Although the interim government enlisted internationally recognized figures to serve as its public face and promised swift elections, the transitional plan it introduced on Tuesday was widely criticized inside Egypt as muddled, authoritarian and rushed.
The so-called road map, in the form of a “constitutional declaration” by the military-appointed president, elicited immediate opposition from civilian leaders across the political spectrum, including the liberals and activists who sought the ouster of President Morsi, the faction of ultraconservative Islamists who joined them and the many thousands protesting to demand his reinstatement.
The declaration, however, made clear that the government drew its authority only from the military commander who executed the takeover, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi. The interim president, Adli Mansour, a senior judge, cited the general’s brief statement as the basis of his own authority, and in confirmation the general’s words were printed as law in the official Gazette.
“It is now officially a coup,” Nathan Brown, a political scientist specializing in Egyptian law at George Washington University, wrote in assessing the text.
The signs of a widening crackdown on the Brotherhood and its affiliates intensified on Tuesday, when Brotherhood officials said that they had lost contact with about 250 members of their leadership, in addition to the dozens — including Mr. Morsi — known to be detained.
In the first official word about Mr. Morsi’s circumstances in custody, the caretaker foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, said on Tuesday in an interview on CNN that he was “not free to go around, but he is treated very well.” Mr. Amr said he did not know Mr. Morsi’s precise whereabouts but defended the military’s response to the protests outside the Republican Guard headquarters on Monday. “I do not believe that the military personnel opened fire at peaceful demonstrators,” he said.
David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Ben Hubbard, Kareem Fahim and Sarah Mousa from Cairo.