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Egypt detains over 60 Muslim Brotherhood supporters

Supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi chant slogans against the Egyptian military during a trial in Alexandria, Egypt, on March 29, 2014. (AP Photo)

Egyptian security forces have detained at least 61 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood across the country over the past 24 hours, Press TV reports.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that most of the arrests were made during a series of security raids on homes in the provinces of Giza, Fayoum, Gharbiya and Minya.

The detainees were arrested on suspicion of inciting violence against state institutions.

The news came ahead of the inauguration of a controversial development project, which is due on August 6.

The project is reportedly meant to bolster the credibility of military-backed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

On Tuesday, a senior Egyptian Interior Ministry official threatened to take action against those who seek to disrupt the inauguration of the controversial project.

In a separate development, an international human rights organization known as Human Rights Monitor (HRM) warned of the growing number of people that go missing at the hands of security services in Egypt.

The rights group has documented more than 580 cases of enforced disappearances in the first half of 2015.

The rights organization says such violations represent a systematic policy applied by Egypt’s military-backed government. It also documented a spike in such cases since the new interior minister was appointed by President Sisi in spring.

Since leading a military coup in July 2013 against the first democratically-elected president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, Sisi has overseen a crackdown targeting the Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other government critics and opponents.

The crackdown on Brotherhood supporters has left over 1,400 people dead.

The military-backed government has criminalized street protests, sentenced hundreds to death in mass trials and imprisoned some 40,000 political opponents and their supporters.

Latest figures show that nearly 300 political detainees are said to have died in police custody and thousands have remained behind bars.


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