An Egyptian court will on Wednesday review a petition for the release of deposed President Hosni Mubarak filed by his lawyer, judicial sources said.
The court will convene at the Cairo prison where Mubarak is being held, the sources said.
If the court upholds the petition, Mubarak will be released as there remains no further legal grounds for his detention, though he is being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising, judicial sources say.
This comes after the spiritual leader of Egypt's
Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie was detained by police in Cairo.
Egyptian officials and state
television reported his capture early on Tuesday.
They said Mohammed Badie was detained
in an apartment in the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City.
That's where supporters of former
President Mohammed Morsi held a six-week sit-in protest that was cleared by
security forces in a crackdown last Wednesday.
Badie and his powerful deputy Khairat
el-Shater, who is also in custody, go on trial later this month for their
alleged role in the killing of eight protesters outside the Islamist group's
Cairo headquarters in June.
Badie's arrest is a serious blow
to the group at a time when authorities are cracking down on its leaders and
mid-ranking officials, detaining scores of them across the country.
Following his detention, the Freedom and Justice Party appointed Mahmoud Ezzat as temporary leader for the Muslim Brotherhood.
This as media reports that suggest the United States has cut off aid to Egypt are not accurate, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday, adding that the Obama administration is still reviewing its options.
"That review has not concluded and ... published reports to the contrary that assistance to Egypt has been cut off are not accurate," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing.
Earnest also said that Egypt's detention of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie was not in line with the standard that the United States would hope to uphold in protecting basic human rights.
Similarly, the United States condemned comments by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan accusing Israel of having a hand in the Egyptian military's overthrow of president Mohamed Mursi, a White House spokesman said.
"We strongly condemn the statements that were made by Prime Minister Erdogan today. Suggesting that Israel is somehow responsible for recent events in Egypt is offensive, unsubstantiated, and wrong," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing.
Earlier on Tuesday, Erdogan told provincial leaders of his AK Party: "What do they say in Egypt? Democracy is not the ballot box. What is behind it? Israel. We have in our hands documentation."
AP/REUTERS
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