Arrests, protests and fear of swelling violence torment streets of Cairo

Egyptian police arrested four more prominent pro-Mohammed Morsi supporters on Tuesday, two days ahead of protests, scheduled to mark the year anniversary of Morsi's overthrow. 

According to Egyptian security officials, Magdy Hussein, a leader of the Anti-Coup Alliance that spearheaded protests, demanding Morsi be reinstated, was arrested at dawn on charges of inciting violence and threatening national security and stability.

Nasr Abdel Salam, head of the Building and Development party, was also arrested, alongside two other high-ranking party members. The Building and Development party is part of the broader anti-coup alliance and is the political arm of the ex-Islamic militant group Gamaa Islamiya which renounced violence in the 1990s. The group has traditionally opposed the military-backed overthrow of Morsi, but says that it considers itself separate from the Muslim Brotherhood and does not necessarily want to reinstate Morsi. 

Egypt's first democratically elected president, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, was overthrown on 3 July last year, after the military stepped in to support popular protests against his rule. Since then, the new authorities have waged a brutal crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood supporters, as well as other opposition groups. More than 1,400 people have been killed in street clashes and over 15,000 jailed. Hundreds have been sentenced to death in controversial mass trials. 

The Anti-Coup Alliance has slammed the arrests, labelling them "kidnappings”, using the opportunity to renew its calls for a pro-Morsi "day of rage" on Thursday. 

The alliance has organised near weekly protests to oppose the July coup, despite the outlawing of unofficial protests and harsh sentences, often handed down to picketing activists. Last week saw tensions and subsequent clashes rise ahead of the anniversary, while a blast killed two policemen outside the Presidential Palace in Cairo on Monday. 

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi quickly responded to the blasts by vowing to carry out “retribution” for the attack. 

Sisi, a former army chief, lead the July coup against Morsi. He was elected president by a landslide majority during a controversial vote in May, which was boycotted by swaths of the opposition.