CAIRO, 28 March 2005 — Egyptian security forces arrested scores of members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood yesterday, and hours later the group demonstrated against the government - eluding thousands of riot police awaiting their protest with a bold, last-minute change of location. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Mohammed Osama, initially put the number of arrests at 48, saying most were taken into custody in predawn raids in at least five different provinces. Later, Brotherhood official Badr Mohammed Badr put the number at 64.
The arrests included several leading figures in the group, Osama and Badr said. State security prosecution officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrests. The group demonstrated in the afternoon in front of the downtown Parliament building. Generally, demonstrations are tolerated though a violation of Egypt’s decades-old emergency laws, but riot police always vastly outnumber protesters.
Several thousand members of the Brotherhood took part in three demonstrations, calling for constitutional reforms and the lifting of restrictive emergency laws. The main demonstration, consisting of 1,000 people according to authorities and 3,000 according to organizers, took place on the central Ramses Square after tight security measures prevented them getting to Parliament. The two other gatherings, involving 200 to 300 people each, took place in the central Bab El-Luk and Sayyeda Zeinab districts, authorities said. Street demonstrations are banned in Egypt thanks to emergency laws that have been in place since President Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981.
“End the state of emergency,” demonstrators shouted, calling also for “opposition to American interference” in Egyptian affairs and “more constitutional reforms”. Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef called for the demonstration last week during a press conference on constitutional reforms put forward by President Hosni Mubarak that will, in theory, allow a degree of choice for voters in presidential elections due to be held later this year. Several thousand police were deployed around government buildings in the capital as well as the US and British embassies.
Leading Brotherhood member Essam El-Erian told Reuters the authorities had arrested six members of the group who were trying to attend the protest and detained a further 49 of the protest organizers. An official said the 49 men, arrested in five separate sweeps late on Saturday, were found “in possession of books and publications opposed to the system of government” and suspected of recruiting new Brotherhood members and “disturbing security”.
