CAIRO: State Security forces arrested 19 members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group on Thursday, including prominent member Mohamed Ghazlan, a Brotherhood source told Daily News Egypt. Among the 19 detained members were Hamdy Ibrahim, in charge of the group's administrative office in North Cairo, Maged Al-Zomor, Khairy Abbas, and some would-be candidates in the coming local council elections, including lawyers Hatem Adel Attia and Reda Al-Guindy, publisher Mohamed Kassem, businessmen Mahmoud Hussien and Gomaa Ibrahim, teachers Mohamed Fawzy and Abdel Wahed Abdel Meguid and chemist Hassan Aly. This sweep came three days after the authorities began accepting candidate applications to local council elections. It comes on the heels of an intensive crackdown on the group, bringing the total number of detainees to over 700 arrested in the past few weeks. Another press release issued by the Brotherhood claimed that 23 Brotherhood-affiliated teachers in Qena were being transferred to other schools 50 km away from their place of residence so as to prevent them voting for Brotherhood candidates. In Alexandria, 25 Muslim Brothers who were detained on March 4 were also transferred to Borj Al-Arab prison indefinitely. Despite the ongoing sweep, Brotherhood lawyer Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud told Daily News Egypt that members will not forfeit their right to run in the coming elections. On March 4, four detainees announced their intention to compete in the municipal race from behind bars. How they plan to complete the paperwork required to declare candidacy remains to be seen, but in the meantime, Abdel Maqsoud has filed a request with the Attorney General's office asking for the detained members' criminal records as well as for permission to send their nomination forms to the New Nozha and Ain Shams police stations, which is where forms for the Heliopolis and Nasr City districts are collected. According to Abdel Maqsoud, detainees have the right to run in municipal elections as long as they have never been sentenced by a court or accused of dishonorable conduct. The much contested elections begin on April 8.
