Egypt to ask INTERPOL to arrest Brotherhood leaders expelled from Qatar

The Egyptian prosecutor general Hisham Barakat has asked the international police agency INTERPOL to arrest “fugitive” leaders and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including those who have been asked to leave Qatar, a judicial source told Arabi 21 website.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that those whose names have been sent to INTERPOL include “fugitives wanted for judicial investigations in Egyptian courts.”

Sources in the Muslim Brotherhood earlier said that Qatar had requested seven leaders and sympathizers to leave the country within a week, while the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party announced it accepted the request.

The Brotherhood figures who will leave Qatar include Mahmoud Hussein (The Brotherhood’s Secretary General), Amr Darrag and Hamza Zoubaa (members of the executive board of the FJP), Ashraf Badreldin (former Brotherhood MP), Gamal Abdelsattar (former deputy minister of religious endowments), and pro-Brotherhood clerics Essam Teleima and Wagdy Ghonim.

A source in the Brotherhood told Arabi 21 that the deported leaders will choose from five countries to move to, namely Tunisia, Turkey, Sudan, Malaysia, and Britain.

Darrag, one of those asked to leave Qatar, said on his Facebook in response to Qatari decision: “We appreciate the great role of the State of Qatar in supporting the Egyptian people in their Revolution against the military junta, and well understand the circumstances faced by the region.

In order to avoid causing any embarrassment for the State of Qatar, which we found to be a very welcoming and supportive host, some symbols of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing – the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) – who were asked by authorities to move their residence outside the state of Qatar, have now honored that request.”