Deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has been detained as authorities launch an investigation into whether he conspired with militant Islamist group Hamas.
This is the first official statement on Morsi’s legal status since he was ousted on July 3, according to the Washington Post. He has been in an undisclosed location since he was removed from the presidency.
Morsi has been accused of working with the Palestinian Hamas “to carry out anti-state acts, attacking police stations, army officers and storming prisons, setting fire to one prison and enabling inmates to flee, including himself, as well as premeditated killing of officers, soldiers, and prisoners,” reports OnIslam.
The attacks he is accused of plotting led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, a political opponent of Morsi, in 2011.
The new charges have angered Morsi’s Muslim brotherhood supporters, who flooded the streets early on Friday as anti-Morsi demonstrators gathered to show their support of Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who ousted the former president, and the interim government, according to the New York Times.
UN Leader Ban Ki-moon recently called for Morsi’s release since he had not been formally charged with a crime. Ban asked that he and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders “be released or have their cases reviewed transparently without delay.”
Images: WikiCommons, Twitter
