Egypt detains 255 Brothers
2008-04-03 08:26
Cairo - Egyptian authorities have detained 255 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood after widespread protests against a crackdown by authorities, says a security official.
"The men were detained in six different provinces between Tuesday and Wednesday," the official said.
Most were held after demonstrations across the country earlier this week against a clampdown by the authorities and what the Islamist group said was a campaign to block members from running in the April 08 municipal elections.
Nearly 3 000 Muslim Brotherhood members protested in Zagazig, 100km northeast of Cairo, 2 000 demonstrated in the port city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean, and 1 500 marched at Damanhur in the Nile Delta.
The authorities had intensified their crackdown on the organisation in the months ahead of the election, arresting several hundred members.
The Brotherhood was Egypt's largest opposition group. It was officially banned, but was allowed to operate openly, though it was subject to periodic crackdowns.
The group had about 150 would-be candidates in the local polls.
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch had slammed the roundup as "shameless" and cast serious doubt on the election's legitimacy.
It said the arrests, combined with ongoing military trials of Islamists, were part of a bid by President Hosni Mubarak and his ruling National Democratic Party to fix the elections.
The Brotherhood said the crackdown aimed to block another election success after the 2005 parliamentary poll saw the group win a fifth of seats through members standing as independents.
Muslim Brotherhood leaders had said their candidates would contest the elections from jail if necessary.