CAIRO: Egyptian police fired teargas at protesting students at Cairo’s al-Azhar university on Wednesday 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 New Cairo house 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 Morsi.
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 institution for Islamic teachings demonstrated for weeks to support the Islamist Morsi, whom the army toppled in July after mass protests against his rule.
Many Brotherhood leaders have been detained since Morsi’s overthrow. He, Erian and 13 others are expected to go on trial on Monday on charges of inciting violence. The charges relate to the deaths of about a dozen people in clashes outside the presidential palace last December after Morsi enraged protesters with a decree expanding his powers. (Reuters)
