Cairo detains Brotherhood TV chief

A court in Egypt on Sunday ordered the detention of the head of the Muslim Brotherhood television channel, as the authorities pressed a crackdown on the banned group.

Hani Salah Al Deen, who was arrested on Thursday, was ordered to be detained for 15 days as part of an investigation into the broadcast of “false information” and “incitement to violence”, judicial sources said.

The action comes three months after a Cairo court ordered in September that four television stations, including Al Jazeera Egypt and the Brotherhood’s Misr 25, be closed indefinitely.

Misr 25 was among several Islamist networks that went off the air soon after the July 3 bloody ouster by the military of President Mohammed Mursi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.

More than 1500 people have been killed and thousands more arrested, mostly Islamists, since Egypt’s military-installed authorities launched a crackdown against Mursi supporters in mid-August.

Mursi and top Brotherhood leaders are behind bars facing trial for incitement to murder. Salah Al Deen has rejected the accusations against him. He was arrested on Thursday at Cairo’s International Airport as he was attempting to leave the country.

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