Egyptian authorities have arrested 21 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood organization and detained them for 15 days, a police source said Saturday.
They were arrested in five provinces, including the capital, and accused of reactivating the organization's activities.
More than 100 members of the organization have been arrested since October 1999, more than half of them during May and June this year.
"Increasing arrests against Muslim Brotherhood members ahead of the parliamentary elections aims at silencing them," spokesman Mamoun el-Hodeiby told AFP by telephone.
He added that these arrests came in the context of freezing the Islamist-led Labor Party's activities and closing its new paper, Al-Shaab.
The Muslim Brotherhood plans to take part in the parliamentary elections due later this year without a political label.
With such arrests, elections cannot be fair nor honest, el-Hodeiby said.
The authorities accuse the 70-year-old organization of encouraging violence, while members of the brotherhood say they are working peacefully for the establishment of an Islamic state in Egypt - CAIRO (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
