Egyptian security forces have reportedly detained the youngest son of detained Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagi.“[Security forces] raided our home and took my son, Khaled, for the second time,” Khaled’s mother, Sanaa Abdel-Gawwad, wrote on Facebook.
It remains unclear why Khaled, 16, was detained.
The Egyptian authorities, for their part, have yet to confirm Abdel-Gawwad’s assertions.
Both Khaled's high-profile father and elder brother, Anas, are already in custody, accused by police of having committed acts of violence.
Both say the charges are politically motivated.
Al-Beltagi was arrested by Egyptian security forces in mid-2013 following the violent dispersal of two Cairo sit-ins held in support of President Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader who was ousted by the military after serving only one year in office.
Beltagi's daughter, Asmaa, was killed during the sit-in dispersal, which left hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters dead.
The Brotherhood leader has been slapped with three separate death sentences for allegedly committing acts of violence and conspiring with Palestinian resistance group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah with a view to carrying out “terrorist acts” in Egypt.
Since mid-2013, when Morsi – Egypt’s first freely elected president – was ousted in a military coup, the Brotherhood has remained the target of a harsh crackdown by the Egyptian authorities.
The crackdown, which remains ongoing, has seen hundreds of Brotherhood members killed and tens of thousands thrown behind bars.
In the wake of Morsi’s ouster, the Muslim Brotherhood was branded a “terrorist organization” by the Egyptian government.
The Islamist group, however, has consistently denied the allegations, saying it is devoted to purely peaceful modes of political activism.
