Muslim Brotherhood supporters
Muslim Brotherhood supportersReuters

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, was in good health, denying reports in Egyptian media that he had died from a heart attack in prison.

The Interior Ministry’s Facebook page said Badie, the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, was “enjoying good health,” reported Reuters.

The State-run Al-Ahram newspaper had earlier reported that Badie suffered a heart attack while in jail but his condition had since stabilized.

It was not clear whether the Interior Ministry was denying just the death or the death and the heart attack.

The state-run news agency MENA earlier denied a report by the private Al-Nahar website that the 70-year-old Badie had died.

Badie and many other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested in recent weeks, after the army deposed Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi, in one of the toughest crackdowns the Islamist group has faced.

Badie, who was arrested on August 20 in an apartment close to Rabia al-Adawiya square was charged in July with incitement to murder in connection with protests before Morsi was ousted. He was due to be questioned on August 28 but prison authorities delayed the session because of Badie’s poor health.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad said he had no information on Badie’s health when asked to respond to reports that he had died in prison.

A medical team was sent to Tora prison on the outskirts of Cairo to assess Badie’s medical condition on Saturday, a security source told Al-Ahram.

The source said his condition has stabilized and that the heart attack resulted from the “bad psychological state that he is going through”.

A lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood recently claimed that Badie had been beaten by police during his arrest and was denied access to his medication.