European Union Leaders Meet With Ousted Egyptian President Morsi

Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi met late Monday night with E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, her spokesman said Tuesday, the first time the deposed leader has been allowed to meet with the outside world after nearly four weeks of being held incommunicado.

Ashton met Morsi late Monday “and had a two hour in-depth discussion,” Ahston’s spokewoman Maja Kocijancic said by e-mail on Tuesday.

She provided no further information and could not immediately be reached. She said that more information would be released later Tuesday.

Morsi has been held in a secret location since a military coup ousted him on July 3, and though Egypt’s interim leaders have assured the public that he is safe and being treated well, no one has been allowed to see him. Ashton’s visit came hours after she met with top civilian and military leaders in Egypt’s interim government. She also met with representatives from Tamarod, or Rebel, the youth movement that helped organize the protests that sparked Morsi’s ouster, as well as with some of the few senior Muslim Brotherhood officials who have not been arrested in an escalating crackdown on the organization.

Ashton has made no public statements since she arrived in Cairo on Monday. Ahead of her trip, she called for “a fully inclusive transition process, taking in all political groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. This process must lead — as soon as possible — to constitutional order, free and fair elections and a civilian-led government.”

On Friday Egyptian officials announced a criminal probe against Morsi, providing for the first time a legal justification for the detention of the former leader, the country’s first democratically-elected president. Judicial authorities said they were investigating espionage and murder allegations relating to Morsi’s 2011 escape from prison along with other Muslim Brotherhood officials during the revolution.

The Muslim Brotherhood called on its supporters Monday to protest the revived power of the security forces by demonstrating in front of Interior Ministry offices around the country, raising fears of further violence after police and their plainclothes allies killed at least 80 Morsi supporters Saturday.

Egyptian authorities detained two leaders of the moderate Islamist al-Wasat party on Monday, in an apparent broadening of a crackdown on Islamist political activity. The arrests occurred even as the Obama administration condemned the violence.

The brutality of Egypt’s once-feared security state helped spark Egypt’s 2011 revolution. Now those security forces are swinging back into action, and this time they are being hailed as heroes by many of the secular activists and liberals who once campaigned against them.

The reversal started when police in crisp white uniforms joined the successful effort to oust Morsi four weeks ago, drawing cheers from crowds. Since then, police officers who were chased off the streets after the 2011 revolution have been back in force. Meanwhile, the interim government has restored the mandate of the domestic counterterrorism agency to scrutinize religious and “extremist” activity. Those powers were stripped after the revolution because they were widely interpreted as justifying the torture of Islamists and other government opponents.