Govt crackdown on Brotherhood
2005-05-23 09:38
Cairo - Authorities arrested the fourth-highest official in Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood — part of a sweeping government crackdown against a boycott of what the opposition calls President Hosni Mubarak's sham election referendum.
The arrest of Mahmoud Ezzat on Sunday came as the government and its supporters posted huge banners on government buildings and streets urging Egyptians to support Mubarak and vote yes in the controversial referendum on Wednesday.
The full press for Mubarak also includes getting word out in government-controlled mosques and a prominent cleric's edict that participation is a religious duty.
A Brotherhood official said the arrests — just days before the referendum — were a clear effort to influence the decisions of Egyptian voters, and an effort to stifle Brotherhood officials who might run for legislative seats.
Ezzat, secretary-general of the banned Brotherhood and accused of inciting illegal protests, is the most senior of about 2 500 Brotherhood members picked up since the group took to the streets in May.
Multiple arrests
Altogether, 25 Brotherhood members were arrested on Sunday and will be detained for 15 days.
Now 60, Ezzat has been a member of the Brotherhood's highest decision-making body since 1981 and leads its Cairo operations. Police said his arrest was the highest-profile Brotherhood arrest since 1996.
Prosecutors have begun questioning the 25 detainees on charges of membership in —or in the cases of Ezzat and three others leadership of — a banned group and of organising demonstrations without government permission. They are all also facing charges of inciting people to not vote on referendum day.
Changes are merely 'window dressing'
Wednesday's referendum will allow Egyptians to approve or reject changes to the constitution, to allow the nation's first multiparty presidential elections in September.
Mubarak's opponents, including the Brotherhood and four political parties, have urged a boycott, saying the changes are little more than window dressing — and instead calling for real reform.
Opposition newspapers call referendum day "a mourning day" and "black Wednesday". The largely secular Kifaya, or "Enough", movement is planning a protest in 20 provinces.
Egypt's administrative court is expected to rule on Monday on a request by some opposition parties for an injunction against the referendum.
Protesting lawyers
Mubarak, 77, who has served 24 years as Egypt's president, has always been handily reinstalled in yes-no referendums in which there were no other candidates.
Ezzat was arrested under former President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1965 during the days of harsh crackdowns on a group that sought to overthrow the regime and replace it with an Islamic system. He was released in 1974. He also was arrested in 1995 — once again an election year — and he was sentenced by a military court to five years in prison.
- AP