Egypt’s foreign ministry has summoned Qatar’s charge d’affaires in Cairo on Tuesday to demand the handover of Islamist fugitives in exile in Doha.
This is the second time the interim government has summoned Qatari officials this year, with the Qatari ambassador being summoned in January in protest of Doha’s criticism of Egypt’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
The ambassador was not in the country on Tuesday.
Relations between the countries deteriorated with the Egyptian military’s overthrow of Islamist President Mohammad Morsi and its subsequent crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood movement, which Qatar backs.
Several Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and allied Islamists, fled to Doha following Morsi’s ouster in July while some are wanted for trial in Egypt, Agence France-Presse reported.
Foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty told a news conference the Qatari diplomat was told “it was necessary to hand over those who are wanted by Egypt,” AFP reported.
In December, Egypt’s interim government designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and called for Arab states that signed a 1998 anti-terrorism treaty to hand over wanted members of the group.
Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Morsi himself, face separate trials on charges ranging from inciting violence to espionage.
Morsi and 14 co-defendants, including former aides, are accused of inciting the killing of opposition activists outside the presidential palace in December 2012, an incident that hastened his overthrow by the military almost seven months later.
His supporters say the military-installed regime has brought trumped up charges.
