Egypt: Arrest warrants issued for five activists

[frigidmagi]

Yahoo

Egypt's top prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for five rights activists on suspicion of inciting violence against members of the president's Muslim Brotherhood.

A statement posted Monday on the attorney general's official Facebook page said all five have also been banned from traveling abroad.

The warrants came one day after Islamist President Mohammed Morsi sternly warned his opponents, saying he may be close to taking unspecified measures to protect the nation.

They also followed the issuing of summons for a larger group of politicians and activists for questioning over clashes on Friday outside the Brotherhood's office, the worst between the group's members and opponents in three months.

The five activists are: Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Ahmed Douma, Karim El-Shaer, Hazem Abdel-Azim and Ahmed Ghoneimi.

There's no way any of his political opponents are gonna believe this is anything but a move to take out challengers to his control. I don't think this is actually gonna calm anything down. Additionally, I do find some grim irony in the Muslim Brotherhood using the same police that for decades hounded them, to hunt down their political rivals.