CAIRO: Officials arrested 13 Muslim Brotherhood deputy leaders on Saturday and Sunday in its latest crackdown on the group in Cairo, Gharbeya and Sharqeya. The most prominent of the detainees are Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, secretary general of the Arab Doctors' Union, Fathi Lasheen, former financial consultant at the Ministry of Justice, and Gamal Abdel Salam, chairman of the emergency committee in the Arab Doctors' Union and former Brotherhood candidate in the 2005 People's Assembly parliamentary elections. According to Mohamed Habib, the Brotherhood's deputy leader, the recent crackdown is proof of the "regime's failure to solve the Egyptian society's problems. The total number of Brotherhood members arrested over the past few months has reached 146, Habib told Al-Jazeera. "This crackdown will fail like all the previous ones and the Brotherhood will continue to work towards reform, Habib added. In an official press statement, the group claimed that the government is conducting those arrests to gain credit from the United States and Israel, by attacking Islamic political groups.
