2 morre Iissll a miissttss arrested in Egypt, govt widens crackdown

Two more top leaders of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood were arrested today while trying to flee the country as part of the militarybacked government's widening crackdown on the Islamist group that is demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

Safwat Hegazy, a fiery Salafi preacher, was arrested on Libyan border, while Mourad Ali, a spokesman for the Brotherhood's political wing, was detained at the Cairo airport, trying to catch a flight to Italy, Egypt's state-run MENA news agency reported on Wednesday. Hegazy is wanted over charges of instigating violence. The arrests come a day after Mohammed Badie, 70, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, was arrested in an apartment close to Rabia al-Adawiya square, where Islamist supporters of Morsi held a vigil before it was cleared in a bloody crackdown by security forces last week. They were among about 100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood taken into custody. The brotherhood, locked in a deadly battle with the military for control of Egypt, slammed the interim government's ongoing "bloody military coup." In a statement, the group's Freedom and Justice Party described the charges against Badie as "trumped up" and "political." "It is well-known that all the charges brought against the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliated political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) as well as the leaders of the Anti-Coup, Pro-Democracy National Alliance are implausible fabricated charges with no legally acceptable evidence," the statement said.