Cairo: The General Prosecution revealed on Saturday that Muslim Brotherhood members had recruited Syrians and Palestinians to open fire at protesters opposed to the rule of ousted President Mohammad Mursi.

The Brotherhood members asked a Syrian to join them in their protests in return for 500 Egyptian pounds for each protest he would take part in.

Investigations revealed that a Syrian called Mohammad Hassan Al Berdkany, was arrested at Maspero after firing birdshot at protesters from Qasr Al Nile Bridge on Friday. Berdkany said he had fled the fighting in his country and had come with his family to Cairo, A judicial source told Gulf News.

Berdkany said he met a young Syrian man named Ahmad Al Soury who was responsible for gathering Syrians to take part in the protests the Muslim Brotherhood was organising at Nahdet Misr Square, Giza.

“I used to meet members of the Brotherhood in an apartment in 6th October City. A local leader of the Syrian community took me to another apartment where a number of young members of the Brotherhood were staying”, Berdkany said in investigations.

Berdkany said that the head of the Palestinian community who paid Palestinians to protest for the Brotherhood is named Bassel Al Feroun. Their meetings also took place in an apartment in 6th October City and each participant was handed a shotgun and paid to join the Brotherhood protests in Nahdet Misr Square.

The General Prosecutor has asked intelligence, national security, and criminal investigation authorities to conduct their own investigations to determine the movements of Berdkany and to uncover the identities of the suspects involved in the case.

Meanwhile, legal affairs department of Insurance and Social Affairs ministry addressed the General Prosecution over the outcome of investigations into violence outside the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Moqattam on Monday.

The ministry is reportedly looking into the presence of weapons or militias during the incident.

Nine people were reportedly killed by live ammunition at the Islamist group’s headquarters before it was eventually ransacked and torched by the attackers.

Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammad Badie and his deputy Khairat Al Shater had been taken into custody by security forces upon an arrest warrant for inciting the murder of anti-Mursi protesters outside the headquarters in Moqattam.

The prosecutor accused both of assigning 250 Brotherhood members to the top the office building on June 30 in order to target anyone who approached or attempted to storm the building with birdshot and firearms.

Badie was later released from detention and delivered a speech at the main rally in support of the ousted president. The General Prosecution issued a arrest warrant for him for inciting violence during his speech. Al Shater was held for 15 days for interrogations.

One of the alleged snipers who was caught on June 30 said during interrogations 250 persons used birdshot to target people outside, and connected electricity to the building’s wall to injure those outside trying to get in.

The Islamist supporters fled the building out of a backdoor when ammunition stocks ran out, the defendant said, but he was arrested by protesters.

Social Affairs and Insurance Minister Nagwa Khalil said that the move comes within the ministry’s legal procedures relating to non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Nagwa told state-run MENA that she was concerned about whether the headquarters had contained weapons and whether there were militias or any militant groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood group.

The ministry restored its powers to dissolve NGOs deemed to be operating outside the law, after the constitution — which stated NGOs should be dissolved by the courts — was suspended this week.

Egypt’s largest Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood was officially registered as a non-government organisation by the Social Affairs ministry on March 19 2013 when Nagwa was in office.