CAIRO, 1 May 2007 — Egypt’s largest opposition group yesterday linked the detention of two Islamist members of Parliament to imminent upper house elections and said the government would not deter the Islamists from taking part. The members of Parliament, Sabri Amer and Ragab Abu Zeid, were held in a police raid on a Brotherhood meeting in the Nile Delta town of Shibin El-Kom on Sunday, along with 12 others.
It was the most serious step against Muslim Brotherhood lawmakers since the movement won 88 of the 454 seats in the lower house of Parliament in 2005 elections. Brotherhood deputy leader Mohamed Habib said the MPs were at a meeting to prepare for the elections to the upper house, known as the Shoura Council, which are expected in June. “The Egyptian regime is trying by every method to hit the Brotherhood early to prevent it from contesting the next Shoura elections,” he said in a statement.
“This illustrates the regime’s authoritarian policy and the repressive approach by which it aims to marginalize the Brothers in Egyptian political life,” he added.
An Interior Ministry statement on the raid said “a secret organizational meeting” was taking place at the time and described the Brotherhood as “dissolved.”
After a meeting of 17 Brotherhood members of Parliament, their caucus leader said the movement would not submit. “If the aim of the arrests was to put pressure on the Brotherhood so that they do not take part in the Shoura elections, then the Brotherhood will not back out of the elections,” said the leader, Mohamed Saad Katatni.
Egyptian police have picked up dozens of Brotherhood members in recent weeks, bringing to more than 300 the number in detention, mostly without charges. Government officials have said openly that they do not think the Brotherhood should have the right to engage in politics. A constitutional amendment passed this year bans politics on the basis of religion but the authorities have not yet made clear how they intend to implement the ban.
