DUBAI, July 26 (RAPSI) – Deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was arrested and detained for the duration of 15 days, Sky News Arabia reports. The arrest was made as a part of Egyptian Prosecutor General’s Office investigation.
After being ousted by the military on July 3, Morsi is being held on house arrest. He is being investigated in light of a number of charges, including jailbreak, high treason, and economic crimes. Shortly before the investigation took off, Morsi and several other high ranking officials were prohibited from leaving Egypt, and their assets in national and foreign banks frozen.
The Egyptian army deposed Morsi, who narrowly won the country’s first free presidential election last June with 51.7 percent of the vote, following mass nationwide protests against the rule of the Islamist president.
Morsi’s presidential ouster was the second in about as many years.
Former president Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade reign over Egypt ended as the result of a bloody uprising in early 2011.
Upwards of 800 people were killed during the course of the protests that derailed Mubarak’s rule, including many protesters who were fired on by security forces. The uprising lasted from January 25 to February 11, 2011, at which point Mubarak resigned the presidency.
Egypt’s Supreme Military Council, which assumed control of the country following Mubarak’s resignation, promptly ordered an investigation into the protester casualties that occurred during the uprising. The fallen leader was then charged alongside his two sons with abuse of office, corruption, and in connection with the deaths of protesters during the winter uprising.