Egypt Arrests Brotherhood Figure Who Handled News Media

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: September 17, 2013

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CAIRO — Security forces on Tuesday arrested Gehad el-Haddad, a senior official of the Muslim Brotherhood who handled the group’s communication with the foreign news media, security officials said. His arrest was part of a continuing roundup of thousands of Brotherhood members in the two months since the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the group.

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Mr. Haddad is an aide to Khairat el-Shater, a Brotherhood leader who was arrested last month, and the son of Mr. Morsi’s top foreign policy adviser, Essam el-Haddad, who was detained with Mr. Morsi at the time of the takeover. The arrests have already swept up much of the group’s leadership, effectively crippling its organizational ability.

Mr. Haddad’s main role in recent months was speaking to the English-language media, and critics of the Brotherhood have often accused Mr. Haddad of misinformation and exaggeration, especially in comments posted on the Internet. Although he constantly repeated the group’s renunciation of violence to the news media, news reports said Tuesday that he would be charged with inciting violence.

Prosecutors have brought the same charge against Mr. Morsi, Mr. Shater and many others.

Mr. Haddad has lived as a fugitive since Aug. 14, when security forces broke up a Brotherhood-led sit-in against the takeover here, and he moved daily between apartments while avoiding telephones for fear of surveillance. He was educated primarily in Britain; before he began working full time for the Brotherhood he worked in Egypt for the Clinton Foundation, established by former President Bill Clinton.

The police appear to have targeted several Brotherhood spokesmen in recent weeks. Among others recently arrested was Mourad Aly, a volunteer consultant to the group’s political party whose main job for the last 10 years was as a marketing executive for the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck.

Mr. Aly was apprehended at the airport trying to board a flight to a corporate meeting abroad. A company spokesman said Lundbeck was working with Egyptian lawyers and the Danish Embassy in Cairo to seek his release.