Tables turned.

Egypt's highest prosecutor on Thursday called for the release of political prisoners who were held during the rule of the now embattled Muslim Brotherhood.

(SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PROSECUTOR GENERAL ABDEL MEGUID MAHMOUD SAYING:

''It is not fair and it is not just that the revolutionaries stay in jails and those who incited and encouraged their imprisonment to remain outside prison.''

General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud also called for a wider crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

But the spokesman for the Brotherhood warned that Egypt was on the brink of becoming a "police state", after the arrest of its leader hours earlier.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD SPOKESMAN, GEHAD EL-HADDAD, SAYING:

"We put full responsibility on every person that participated in that coup and empowered it to happen."

Near Cairo University, tensions remained high.

Under a heavy military presence, supporters of ousted President Mo