Egypt: more arrests of Muslim Brotherhood

Egyptian police arrested three Muslim Brotherhood candidates to the upper house of parliament as they campaigned in the Nile Delta province of Dakahlia May 27, bringing to 63 the number of Brotherhood members detained in the province since Egypt’s largest opposition movement said it would run in the June 11 elections. At least one of the candidates, Khaled el-Deeb, was charged with belonging to a banned group, illegally using religious slogans for his election campaign and campaigning outside an alotted time period. (Al-Bawaba, May 28)

Egypt’s government strongly condemned a May 27 meeting of four US Congress members with the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s bloc in parliament, accusing the US of a double standard in meeting with the banned Egyptian group while refusing to meet with the Palestinian group Hamas. The congressional delegation, headed by North Carolina Democrat David Price met with a group of lawmakers that included the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Saad el-Katatni. (RTT News, May 28)

See our last post on Egypt.