Egyptian police arrested at least eight people on Tuesday, including a former lawmaker and key secular activists in the country's 2011 uprising, for their alleged ties to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, authorities said.

Police arrested Zyad Elelaimy at around 2:20 a.m. local time, minutes after he left a friend’s house in Cairo’s Maadi District. Elelaimy is a prominent member of the Social Democratic Party, the Civil Democratic Movement and also a leading member of the 2011 protests that unseated long time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Economist Omar al-Shenety, journalists Hossam Monis and Hisham Fouad, and left-wing activist Osama al-Aqbwy were also among the arrested.

The interior ministry said those arrested were loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned and declared a terrorist organization in Egypt in 2013.

The ministry accused Elelaimy and seven others of involvement in a plan fomented and financed through Muslim Brotherhood leaders abroad "to carry out violent and disorderly acts against state institutions simultaneously with creating a state of revolutionary momentum."

The CDM denied Elelaimy and the others arrested had any connections with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Local human rights lawyer Gamal Eid, who is representing some of the defendants, said at least 10 people were arrested in the last few days and were questioned at state security prosecution headquarters on Tuesday.

Eid said the charges include financing a terrorist organization and publishing false news, and he believed that the case is "fabricated" and aims at "spreading fear" among the opposition ahead of the anniversary of the June 30, 2013, uprising that toppled former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, was ousted in a military coup led by then-army chief and current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and was promptly arrested in 2013.

Last week, Morsi suffered a fatal heart attack and collapsed during a court appearance in the capital, Cairo, and shortly afterwards was pronounced dead. Local human rights groups accused the government failing to provide Morsi with adequate medical care, while Egyptian authorities denied the claim of mistreatment.

(With input from AP and Reuters)