The youngest son of Egypt’s jailed former president Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday was arrested on charges of belonging to a banned group and spreading “fake news.” He reportedly was released after paying a fine but is liable to be indicted for prosecution. Abdullah Morsi is the latest to get caught in the crosshairs of Cairo’s ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated by the government as a terrorist organization. Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Sunni Islamic group, was elected Egypt’s leader in 2012 in the wake of the Arab Spring uprising, but was overthrown by the military a year later—and subsequently imprisoned—following major protests against his rule. In an interview with the Associated Press earlier this month, Abdullah revealed that his family had only been granted permission to visit the elder Morsi—who faces the death penalty—three times in five years. Another son of the deposed president, Ossama Morsi, was detained in 2016 for “incitement to violence” and also remains jailed. Rights groups have slammed the heavy-handed tactics employed by Egyptian President Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi, accusing his regime of mass human rights abuses. Since Morsi’s ouster, the Egyptian military has been battling a fierce insurgency by jihadists based in the largely lawless Sinai Peninsula.
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