The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Essam El-Erian, died at the age of 66 in an Egyptian prison where he was serving several judicial sentences issued against him.
El-Erian was a prominent member of the group’s political bureau in Egypt, and he worked as an advisor to the late President Mohamed Morsi, and as vice president of the Freedom and Justice Party, which represents its political arm.
Al-Arian’s lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, told the BBC that the authorities informed him that the death was natural, explaining that he and Al-Arian’s family had not visited him for about six months after the authorities had suspended visits to prisons as a precaution to combat the Coronavirus.
Who is Al-Arian, and his career and role within the Muslim Brotherhood?
Essam El-Din Mohamed Hussein El-Erian was born in 1954 in the village of Nahia, which is affiliated with the Imbaba Center in Giza Governorate.
He studied medicine at Qasr Al-Aini College of Medicine, where he began his political activity in the student organization of the Brotherhood, especially after the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat allowed members of the group to work in the student community, and he graduated from it in 1977.
The group’s literature indicates that he joined it during the study period in 1974, and that he contributed to the formation of the group’s cells in Giza Governorate.
Syndication activity
During this period, Al-Arian was known for his organizational activities in student circles, so he became the Emir of the Islamic Group at Cairo University, then coordinator of the “Universities Shura Council of the General Union of Islamic Associations and Groups” at the end of the seventies. He also became responsible for the Cairo University Student Union, and in the 1980s he was elected president of the General Union of Egyptian University Students.
In addition to studying medicine in which he obtained a master’s degree in clinical pathology, Al-Arian was interested in human studies and studied law and history at Cairo University, as well as his studies of Islamic law at Al-Azhar University.
Al-Erian was also known for his trade union activity in addition to his political activity, as he was elected a member of the board of directors of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate in 1986, and held the position of Assistant Secretary-General in it, as well as his membership in the Egyptian Society for Human Rights, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, the National Islamic Conference, the Arab National Conference and other organizations and associations.
On the parliamentary level, Al-Erian won the membership of the Egyptian People’s Assembly in the 1987-1990 session for the Imbaba district, which was dissolved before the completion of its constitutional term.
Include in leadership positions
Al-Erian rose to leadership positions within the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt until he became a member of the Guidance Bureau in it and an official of the Political Bureau.
After the establishment of the Freedom and Justice Party, the group’s political arm in Egypt, he assumed the positions of General Secretary and Vice President of the party.
Al-Erian was imprisoned for his political activities several times, and multiple sentences were passed against him, the first of which was in the early 1980s and before the assassination of President Sadat, as he spent about a year in prison before he was released in August 1982.