Egypt arrests 22 for planned protest over grisly murder case

CAIRO – Egypt says it has arrested nearly two dozen people for allegedly trying to incite protests over a grisly murder that’s shocked the country.

Earlier this month, a teenage boy fatally stabbed another boy who was defending a girl from sexual harassment.

The killing of Mahmoud el-Banna has stunned Egypt. Surveys indicate that a vast majority of Egyptian women feel insecure in the streets.

Egypt’s interior ministry says the 22 arrested people intended to provoke a riot outside a courthouse in the Nile Delta. That’s where the murder trial began earlier this week.

The ministry said Tuesday that the arrested men and women are all members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

It says they had “inciting posters and weapons,” but didn’t specify when or where the arrests took place.