Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Interpol issues arrest warrants for more than 40 senior Muslim Brotherhood figures | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55328451
Caption:

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi speaks to a crowd as he leads Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on February 18, 2011.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)


Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi speaks to a crowd as he leads Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on February 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi speaks to a crowd as he leads Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on February 18, 2011.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Interpol issued arrest warrants for more than 40 senior Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated figures, including head of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi.

“Egyptian authorities succeeded in persuading Interpol that these figures are fugitives and terrorists who are inciting violence and crimes,” a high-level Egyptian security official informed Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday.

He revealed that Interpol had issued “red notices” for Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Sheikh Wagdy Ghoneim and 40 other “senior members” of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organization.

The Egyptian official said that the figures included on the list are wanted on a number of terror-related crimes.

As for Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who is often described as the “spiritual godfather” of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian official said: “He has issued statements aiming to confuse relations between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors, in addition to inciting violence in Egypt and Syria.”

Interpol’s official website confirms that Qaradawi, aged 88, is wanted on a range of charges including “agreement, incitement and assistance to commit intentional murder, helping prisoners to escape, arson, vandalism and theft.”

Sheikh Wagdy Ghoneim, a controversial Egyptian-Qatari Islamic preacher who was deported from the US in 2005 and has been refused entry to a number of European countries is wanted for “participating in crimes of violence, murder, kidnapping, torture and possession of a firearm without license.”

Ghoneim’s “red notice” did not include a picture at the time this article went to press.

A senior Egyptian judicial figure, also speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, revealed prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat had issued a decision tasking Egyptian security agencies to investigate the activities of satellite television channels and websites affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The judicial source said that the investigations had uncovered attempts to “destabilize” Egypt, including the broadcast of fabricated telephone conversations falsely attributed to Egyptian officials.

This initial investigation resulted in the formation of an expanded prosecution team to further investigate the crimes and take necessary legal action.