Egypt police arrest son of ousted Islamist president Morsi

Egypt police arrest son of ousted Islamist president Morsi

Egyptian police arrested on Thursday the son of ousted Islamist President Mohammad Morsi at his home on charges linked to the Rabaa protest against his father's overthrow.
2 min read
08 December, 2016
Osama was led away from his house by security forces [Getty]

Egyptian police arrested on Thursday the son of ousted Islamist President Mohammad Morsi at his home on charges linked to a protest against his father's overthrow.

Osama Morsi, one of Morsi's five children, was led away from his house by security forces in the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, his lawyer and family members confirmed.

Mobile phone footage of the arrest has been shared on social media, however The New Arab could not verify its authenticity.

"Police searched the house and confiscated an unknown amount of money and a personal computer," Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud told The New Arab.

Abdel Maksoud said that Osama has been charged in a mass trial already under way over the bloody dispersal of the Rabaa sit-in, in which security forces killed at least 800 Islamist demonstrators in 2013.

He added that Osama will appear in court on Saturday during the next session of the mass trial.

About 10 policemen were killed by protesters during the dispersal of the Cairo sit-in.

It was the bloodiest day in a relentless crackdown on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement after the army, spurred by mass protests, overthrew the Islamist president in July 2013.

The state-run news website al-Ahram reported the arrest, saying Osama was accused of inciting violence.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of Islamists to death. Morsi faces a raft of charges in at least four separate cases and has received death sentences from lower courts.

But appeals courts have overturned many of the convictions, including one for Morsi on charges of taking part in a prison break in 2011 when he was an opposition leader.

He has not received family visits or had any access to lawyers for three years.