CAIRO, 29 August 2005 — Egyptian authorities yesterday released the second-in-command of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, who has been in detention for three months without charges.
The lawyer of the banned-but-tolerated group, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, told Arab News that Mahmoud Ezzat, who was rounded up with other Brotherhood leaders during dawn raids on their homes in four governorates, was released on a $150 bail.
Ezzat, a 64-year-old professor of medicine at Zagazig University and No. 2 in the organization, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1965 after a crackdown on the Brotherhood by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was arrested again and sentenced by a military court to five years in prison in 1995, along with other prominent Brothers such as Essam Al-Erian.
Muhammad Habib, the group’s first deputy, said Ezzat could still face charges including belonging to an illegal group and plotting against the regime. “Of course these charges are baseless, but we will not be surprised if he faces them,” he said.
Habib said 48 members of the organization were still in detention, also without officially facing any charges.
Moderate Brotherhood member Al-Erian, who was arrested May 6, is also still in detention that has been repeatedly renewed in successive 15-day periods.
Al-Erian is secretary general of the Arab Doctors’ Syndicate. He has long acted as a sort of unofficial spokesman for the Brotherhood, largely because of his fluency in English and his moderate message, both of which have made him a favorite for foreign journalists. But his outspokenness has not always been appreciated by the movement’s leadership.
His arrest and detention come at a time when many observers say there is a deepening rift within the Muslim Brotherhood between young progressives like Al-Erian and the so-called old guard of septuagenarians that have led it for decades.
“There are real differences in the Muslim Brotherhood between the reformists and the traditionalists,” said Abou Elela Mady, a former member who left the organization to form the moderate Islamist Al-Wasat party. “The Brotherhood’s leadership has worked to reduce the influence of people like Essam Al-Erian.”
These differences reached a high point early this year when Al-Erian publicly criticized chief ideologue Mahdi Akef after the latter said the Brotherhood would support a fifth term for President Mubarak because Islam enjoins obedience to the ruler.
Attorney General Maher Abdel Wahed recently told reporters that Al-Erian would be released shortly. “We will soon release Erian and the other members after we finish investigations related to that case,” he said.
