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Egypt: Islamists arrested in police crackdown
(AKI) - Egyptian security forces arrested 21 members of the country's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, in a new crackdown on the organisation on Tuesday. Sources from the organisation told the Arab daily, al-Hayat, that security police had detained leaders of the banned but tolerated organisation in eight governorates on Tuesday."Police conducted raids at dawn yesterday, in particular on the homes of the group's leaders in Cairo, Alexandria, al-Jiza, Ismailiya, Suez, Manuvia, Gharbiya and Sharqiya," said lawyer Abdel Manam Abdel Maqsud. Police said many of those arrested had been charged with being part of an illegal organisation and referred to a state security court for prosecution. The brotherhood's website said arrests had been carried out in eight parts of the country, including the capital Cairo and the Nile delta. "The arrest campaign came as part of the illegal security approach adopted by the ministry of interior against MB detainees whose houses were raided barbarously without any judicial warrant," the brotherhood said on its site. During Israel's three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian authorities several times prevented the brotherhood from demonstrating and delivering aid to the coastal territory which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement. Some media reports said more than 1,000 members of the banned movement were arrested during Israel's military action, while trying to take part in demonstrations in support of Gaza but many were later released. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned by the Egyptian government but when it fielded independent candidates in the 2005 parliamentary elections it won a fifth of the seats despite allegations of election fraud and police intervention. Arrests of its supporters have increased since the group's success in the elections. Posted by: Fred 2009-03-05 |
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