Arrest warrants for top Islamists in Egypt, Al Ahram sacks editors

Egypt's general prosecution issues arrest warrants on Wednesday for the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei and nine Islamist figures, mostly Brotherhood members, accusing them of inciting violence at the Republican Guard headquarters.

Mohammed Badie

The eight others are Brotherhood Deputy Guide Mahmoud Ezzat; leading rotherhood member Mohamed El-Beltagy; the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Vice Chairman Essam El-Erian; leading figure of ultraconservative Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya Assem Abd El-Maged and hardline Brotherhood supporter Safwat Hegazy. Also Wasat Party Vice Chairman Essam Sultan; Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's Building and Development Party Vice Chairman Safwat Abd El-Ghany; and Islamist activist Abd El-Rahman Ezz and a member of the Brotherhood's consultative council, Mahmoud Hussein are on the list.
The prosecution is still investigating what happend at the headquaters of the Republican Guard. It ordered 200 people to be held for 15 days pending investigations. Earlier on Wednesday 446 people were released on bail.
Egypt's state-owned Al-Ahram media organisation meanwhile sacked its chairman, Mamdouh El-Wali, and the editors of its daily and evening newspapers, Abdel-Nasser Salama and Mohamed Kharaga. All three had been appointed by the Islamist-dominated Shura Council, which was dissolved by interim President Adly Mansour on 5 July. The organisation said it wanted to "rebalance its editorial policy" and meet the expectations of the Egyptian people. A day earlier 22 employees of Al Jazeera Mubashara quit their npositions ou of fre will in protest against the ditorial policy that forced thenm to give more credit to the position of the ZMuslinm Brothethood than to its adversaries. The state of Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera, is a supporter of the Moslim Brotherhood