Egypt’s prosecutor ordered the arrest on Wednesday of the leaders of ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, charging them with inciting violence in a clash that saw otrops shoot 55 Morsi supporters dead.
A week after the army toppled Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, bloodshed has opened deep fissures in the Arab world’s most populous country, with bitterness at levels unseen in its modern history.
Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said the announcement of charges against leader Mohamed Badie and several other senior figures was a bid by authorities to break up a vigil by thousands of Morsi supporters demanding his reinstatement.
This week’s unrest has alarmed Western donors and Israel, which has a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. Washington, treading a careful line, has neither welcomed Morsi’s removal nor denounced it as a “coup”, which under US law would require it to halt aid including the $1.3bn it gives the army each year.
The Brotherhood’s downfall has however been warmly welcomed by three of the rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf, who showered Cairo with aid to prop up the collapsing Egyptian economy.
Kuwait promised Egypt $4bn in cash, loans and fuel on Wednesday, a day after Saudi Arabia pledged $5 billion and the United Arab Emirates offered $3bn.
The Brotherhood leaders were charged with inciting violence in Monday’s shootings, which began before dawn, when the Brotherhood says its followers were peacefully praying. The army says terrorists provoked the shooting by attacking its troops.
Haddad said the Brotherhood leaders had not been arrested and some were still attending the protest vigil at Rabaa Adawiya mosque. The charges against them were “nothing more than an attempt by the police state to dismantle the Rabaa protest”.
In addition to Badie, prosecutors ordered the arrest of others including his deputy, Mahmoud Ezzat, and outspoken party leaders Essam El-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagi. Khairat El-Shater, another senior leader, was held last week.
The prosecutor also ordered 206 Brotherhood activists arrested after Monday’s violence to be detained for a further 15 days on accusations of involvement in the killings. It released 464 others who had been detained, on bail of about $300 each.
Despite the violence that followed Morsi’s removal, the interim authorities are proceeding with the army’s “road map” to restore civilian rule. On Tuesday they named 76-year-old economist Hazem el-Beblawi as acting prime minister.
Beblawi told Reuters he would start selecting ministers and would begin by meeting liberal politicians Mohamed ElBaradei and Ziad Bahaa el-Din. ElBaradei, a former U.N. diplomat, has been named vice president. Bahaa el-Din, a former head of Egypt’s investment authority, has been touted for senior posts.
Both support a stalled $4.8bn loan deal with the International Monetary Fund, which would require Egypt to make politically painful reforms to subsidies for food and fuel that support its 84 million people but drain its finances.