CAIRO: Egyptian security forces have detained 30 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the latest arrests in a crackdown on the country s strongest opposition movement, the group s deputy leader said on Sunday. Mohammed Habib told Reuters 27 Brotherhood members were arrested in the town of Ras Al-Bir on Egypt s north coast during a meeting on Saturday to discuss education reform. Three others were taken from their homes in the same town, he said. The Interior Ministry said the 27 had been arrested while meeting to discuss the Brotherhood s activism among students and teachers. They had also been discussing plans for contesting union elections, it said. The Brotherhood is legally banned and the government launches periodic crackdowns on it. The group says around 500 of its leading members are currently in jail. It enjoyed a spell of unusual tolerance in the early stages of parliamentary elections last year in which members standing as independents won nearly a fifth of the seats, the Brotherhood s strongest ever showing in legislative elections. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said in May the government wanted to prevent the Brotherhood from forming a parliamentary bloc in future elections. Reuters
