8 Islamists held in Egypt
2006-07-14 13:00
Cairo - Egyptian authorities have arrested eight members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in what the group charged on Friday was more harassment after its election success last year.
An interior ministry said police stormed into a flat in northern Cairo late on Thursday and arrested the head of the group's financial committee and seven members.
Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, a senior Brotherhood member, said the detentions were "aimed to harass the group and cut it down to size especially after its widely felt omnipresence in society.
"The government policy now is eliminating members wherever they are."
The Muslim Brotherhood, though banned in Egypt, fielded candidates as independents in the 2005 legislative elections and went on to win one fifth of the seats in parliament.
For the last month, 58 members of the group had been detained in two previous arrest operations.