CAIRO: Muslim Brotherhood MP Mohamed El-Beltagi filed a complaint to the prosecutor general on Saturday accusing Governor of Qaliubiya and various officials of the Shoubra district of libel and preventing him from performing his duties as MP. According to El-Beltagi, the office of the board of directors of the Shoubra district distributed a statement that attacked him personally. His supporters were being harassed and threatened, he claimed. “The shops and businesses of some of my supporters have been raided by security forces,” El-Beltagi told Daily News Egypt. “Seven of my supporters were arrested for no reason.” The arrested supporters were first accused of using religious slogans in their support for El-Beltagi as MP in the upcoming November parliamentary elections, according to El-Beltagi. The Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC) instated a ban on the use of religious slogans this month, disregarding the Administrative Court's 2005 verdict that allowed Brotherhood-affiliated candidates to use their slogan “Islam is the Solution” when campaigning in the parliamentary elections. “The statement issued against me by the council included Quranic verses used and interpreted to attack my character,” El- Beltagi said. He argued that other government officials are entitled to use religious statements in their campaigning against the Muslim Brotherhood, yet the Brotherhood cannot use religious statements in return. The SEC ban forced the group to temporarily depend on alternative slogans. “But since [my supporters had] only used slogans [such as] “change is our path,” [the security forces] accused them of violating the timeline for campaigning set by the SEC,” El-Beltagi added. The SEC also recently passed Resolution no. 58 for 2010, which defines the official campaign period as starting on the day that final candidates are announced and ending on the day before the elections. The final electoral lists will be announced on Nov. 12-14, and elections will be held on Nov. 28. El-Beltagi also stated that he was prevented from meeting with people from his district. “The people are being threatened and pressured not to meet with me, preventing me from performing my job as a MP who represents the people of [the Shoubra] district,” he said. “Whenever I have a meeting with people in a coffee shop — or any place — the owners get harassed by authorities, and the people are intimidated. The prosecutor general has opened an investigation based on my complaint and we'll see how it goes.” According to El-Beltagi, the office of the board of directors of the Shoubra district distributed a statement that harshly attacked El-Beltagi's character. El-Beltagi added that his supporters were being harassed and threatened. Governor Adly Hussein and various officials of the Shoubra district, including the head of the city council, who were mentioned specifically in El-Beltagi's complaint couldn't be reached for comment by press time. The Muslim Brotherhood announced on Oct. 9 that it will participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Since then, the government launched a crackdown on its members, arresting over 200 so far. In 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood won 88 seats — almost 20 percent of the parliament's 445 seats — as independents. The group became the largest opposition bloc within a parliament largely dominated by members of the ruling National Democratic Party.
