CAIRO: Sixteen members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested from their homes in Cairo early Thursday morning, according to the group's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud. The defendants haven't been officially charged or transferred to the prosecution until press time. “They will probably be charged with joining a banned group as usual,” Abdel Maqsoud told Daily News Egypt. More than 20 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested on Wednesday from Ismailia, Giza, Sixth of October and Al-Sharqeya governorates, according to the group's website. Some of the members were arrested from their homes and charged with being members of a “banned” group, according to Abdel Maqsoud, while others were charged with campaigning for Brotherhood candidates before the official time set by the Supreme Electoral Commission (SEC). “We are prepared to deal with all these hardships,” Saad Al-Hosseiny, member of the Muslim Brotherhood's executive bureau and an independent Brotherhood-affiliated candidate in Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra district told Daily News Egypt. “The elections in Egypt are associated with violence and harassment by the government,” Al-Hosseiny said. Al-Hossieny added that while these arrests will “inevitably” affect the Brotherhood in the upcoming elections, “we will face [these obstacles] and move ahead in our paths to achieve our goals and change the current situation,” he said. Azab Moustafa, an independent Brotherhood-affiliated candidate in Giza told Daily News Egypt that two supporters of the Brotherhood's candidates, Amal Abdel Kerim and Khaled Al-Azhari in Giza, were detained on Wednesday “during a tour in Al Haram and Omraneyya districts to get acquainted with the people.” Both supporters were charged with campaigning for parliamentary candidates before the set official time frame. The SEC passed Resolution no. 58 of 2010, which defines the official campaign period as starting on the day that final candidates are officially announced, on Nov. 12–14, until the day before the elections, Nov. 27. “They were not really campaigning, they were just getting to know the people of their districts,” Moustafa said. Both supporters were released by Thursday afternoon, according to Moustafa. “I was with them at the prosecution's office when they were released because of false accusations,” Moustafa said. Ever since the group announced its participation in the upcoming general elections scheduled to take place on Nov. 28, the government has launched a crackdown on the Brotherhood arresting more than 200 members. Candidates of the MB, which is officially a banned group under Egyptian law, typically run in parliamentary elections as independents. In 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood won 88 seats — almost 20 percent of the 444 seats. This year the group said it'll be contesting 30 percent of the seats.
