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Egypt detains 29 people in crackdown on Islamists

05 Nov 2006 15:32:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

CAIRO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities, engaged in a crackdown on Islamist opposition, detained 29 people before dawn on Sunday, all but seven of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood, security and Brotherhood sources said.

Fifteen of the Brotherhood members were involved in student union elections at the University of Helwan in Cairo, said the banned group's lawyer, Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud.

Police also rounded up seven other Brotherhood members involved in the group's campaign for forthcoming trade union elections, along with seven of their friends who were not affiliated with the group, the lawyer said.

An Interior Ministry spokesman declined to comment.

The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's strongest opposition group, despite being banned since 1954. Members elected as independents hold 88 seats in the 454-member parliament, dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party.

Hundreds of students, mostly Brotherhood members or sympathisers, protested last week inside several universities nationwide against decisions by the universities' administrations to block Islamist candidates from vying for student union seats.

Riot police, dressed in black and armed with batons, have been heavily present outside these universities to prevent campus demonstrations spilling over to the streets.

The government controls state universities, which block Islamist candidates at student union elections every year.

Abdel Maqsoud said the arrested students had been involved in efforts to set up elections for a parallel student union free of government interference.

The Brotherhood said authorities had also disqualified hundreds of its candidates standing for trade union seats, and arrested more than 20 of them last week. Police detain Brotherhood members periodically, and often without charges.

The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch said last month that Egypt had intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood with a new round of "arbitrary arrests".

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Last updated:Sun Nov 5 15:34:24 2006