Police arrested the main suspect accused of inciting violence against police and military and who appeared in the video entitled ‘Helwan Battalions’, said Major General Sayyed Shafiq on Tuesday.
The suspect called Magdy Fonia, who gave the speech in the video that was uploaded on several social media platforms, was arrested along with other four persons.
The suspects were arrested during security raids that lasted for more than a week at seven governorates, Shafiq told Al-Masry Al-Youm. "Eight other people who appeared to be armed in the video while inciting against police and military are still being followed."
Amr Farrag, head of Rasd News Network, which is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, posted on Thursday 14 August a link on Facebook to a video showing a group which dubbed itself Helwan Battalions. In the video, 12 masked armed men threatened to target police forces in south Cairo, hours after a policeman was killed in Helwan about two weeks ago and another attack against a police station in the area, leaving another policeman injured.
The incident marked the first public appearance of an armed group on Cairo streets, amid violence by the Muslim Brotherhood on the first anniversary of dispersing Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins last August.
The Muslim Brotherhood denied the authorities' accusations of having links to the group and denounced the call to use violence.
The video showed a masked person holding a gun and saying, “We got fed up with the peacefulness of the Muslim Brotherhood. We are not brothers.” He also warned the Interior Ministry that they will target south Cairo police stations.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
