Egyptian activist Masoum Marzouk arrested after call for president recall referendum

Egyptian police arrested a prominent opposition activist on Thursday because he wants a referendum on whether President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi should stay in power.

Masoum Marzouk, a former diplomat, was arrested at his Cairo home. His whereabouts remain unknown, said Mohammed Samy, the head of the opposition al-Karama Party.

Two other activists were also arrested at their houses, Samy told journalists.

A source at the Interior Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Marzouk and a second activist, a member of al-Karama Party, had been arrested.

So far, there has been no official comment from the government on the reported arrests.

Earlier this month, Marzouk, a senior leader in the secular grouping the Popular Current, angered Sisi loyalists with his call for an early presidential election. The call was made months after Sisi won a second term in elections that only pitted him against a self-declared loyalist.

Hundreds of secular and Islamist opposition figures have been rounded up in Egypt since 2013 when the army, then led by Sisi, deposed the country's first democratically elected, but divisive, president, Mohammed Morsi, following mass street protests against his rule.    (dpa)