Activist: Egyptian authorities arrest brother to silence me

The U.S.-based Egyptian activist whose Facebook page helped ignite the 2011 pro-democracy uprising says that authorities have arrested his brother in Cairo in retaliation for his criticism of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Wael Ghonim said late Thursday in a video on his twitter account that authorities raided his parents’ house in Cairo and arrested his brother Hazem, whom he described as “a political person” and confiscated his parents’ passports.

Ghonim alleges that the Egyptian embassy in the U.S. threatened him the previous day “something will happen” if he didn’t stop criticizing Egypt’s government on social media.

The arrest came as Egyptian social media was awash with calls for anti-government protests Friday. Videos posted by a self-exiled businessman recently claimed largescale corruption by the military and government, allegations el-Sissi dismissed as “lies.”