Egyptian security forces yesterday arrested the official spokesman of the anti-coup alliance, Magdy Qorqor, from his home but did not charge him, Anadolu news agency reported.
According to lawyer Ashraf Omran, Qorqor was rounded up from his home in Naser City, north Cairo, at 3pm yesterday because of his political stance against the Sisi-led July 3 coup.
Qorqor is currently held in Naser City police headquarters, Omran said.
On Tuesday, Egyptian police arrested two other leading figures from the National Alliance for Supporting Legitimacy; President of the Independence Party, Magdy Hussein, and Acting President of the Building and Development Party, Nasr Abdel Salam. Security forces also stormed the home of Alaa Abul-Nasr, a leading member of the alliance.
Prior to his arrest, Qorqor had commented on the crackdown on anti-coup activists saying it signalled that the authorities would resort to further repression in the coming phase, hoping to provoke the alliance to violence. However, he stressed that the peaceful approach adopted by the alliance will not change despite the continued crackdown.
“We will not be dragged into violence,” he told Anadolu on Tuesday, adding: “We believe that the strength of the alliance lies in its peacefulness. We will not deviate from that until we restore the January 25 revolution.”
The crackdown comes amid calls by the anti-coup alliance for “a day of rage” today “to put an end to the current authorities, or pave the ground for their end,” according to a statement released by the alliance yesterday evening.
The alliance also condemned what it called “the continuation of cowardly arrests and fabricating charges against anti-coup leaders,” and said the crackdown came as a response to popular support for calls for a “July 3 uprising” against the military coup.
It vowed to “continue the revolution using creative peaceful resistance.”