A campaign of arrests last week, by security authorities targeting Muslim Brotherhood members, yielded 154 detainees, said lawyer for the Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, in a press statement on Saturday. Abdel Maqsoud noted that the campaign extended to businesses and projects run by group members in 17 provinces. Seventy of those arrested were remanded in custody after being referred to the public prosecution, while the rest were released, according to Abdel Maqsoud. Those arrested included administrative members along with 23 pro-Brotherhood students, he said. The number of businesses stormed by security stands at 88, according to Abdel Maqsoud, who believes this proves the NDP government is bent on tyranny and the persecution of freedoms. The arrests drew criticism from the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), which issued a statement on Saturday describing the arrests as an attempt to hinder the Muslim Brotherhood's participation in Egypt's upcoming parliamentary elections. ANHRI said it considers the security-organized attacks to be part of a larger government offensive on the freedom of expression, and that the detentions expose the government's intention to rig the polls--as they did during March's Shura Council elections. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
