Egyptian police on Wednesday arrested five members of the banned-but-tolerated Muslim Brotherhood in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, police said.
No charges were filed against the five, including two lawyers and a university lecturer, however their arrests were apparently linked to scuffles that erupted during a parliamentary by-election in Alexandria on June 27.
The emergency law in force since 1981 in Egypt allows police to place under administrative detention, indefinitely, those considered a threat to state security, without having to put them on trial, according to AFP.
The recent arrests bring to 120 the number of Brotherhood members arrested since the elections, in which the two seats contested were won by the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak.
The Brotherhood's candidates, Jihan al-Halafawi, a woman, and Al-Mohammedi Sayyed, have accused police of siding with the NPD and preventing their supporters from reaching the polling stations. The clashes pitted supporters of the Brotherhood against both those of the NDP and the police.
(Albawaba.com)
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