Engineers Syndicate representatives said the security forces arrested about 15 engineers recently on charges of inciting violence and killing protesters, similar to charges filed against ousted President Mohamed Morsy.
They stressed the syndicate assigned a committee of lawyers to defend them regardless of their political affiliation.
Independent engineers criticized their Brotherhood colleagues for using the syndicate as a headquarters to hold politically affiliated meetings after the guidance bureau was burned down and the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins were dispersed. They denounced their being implicated in violence and the killing of protesters, adding they sided with their party affiliation and political group at the expense of their profession and followed calls that ended with them in prison over murder charges.
On the other hand, the “Egypt’s Engineers Rally,” a group of pro-Muslim Brotherhood engineers, denounced the arrest of the engineers describing it in a statement as a “war against engineers not terrorism.” They called for the immediate release of their colleagues and halting security persecution. They added in the statement saying that 15 engineers have been arrested so far following 30 June protests.
The arrested engineers included Morsy, deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Khairat al-Shater, Wasat Party Chairman Abouel Ela Mady, Kafr al-Sheikh governor Saad al-Husseiny, Alexandria Engineers Syndicate head Ali Barakat, Beni Suef Engineers Syndicate head Mohamed Hussein Marzouq, Secretary General of Sohag Engineers Syndicate Abdel Hamid Abdel Aal, Member of the Board of Directors of Aswan Engineers Syndicate Sheief Aboel Magd, head of Subway Authority Abdel Moneim Ibrahim, Strong Egypt Party leader in Alexandria Ahmed al-Morshedy and others, according to the statement.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
