Egypt holds 11 Brotherhood activists ahead of vote

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said 11 of its members had been arrested in a government crackdown on the country's largest opposition group ahead of a vote on laws the Islamists say aim to block them from mainstream politics.

The arrests bring to 47 the number of Brotherhood members detained this week since the group said it would boycott a parliamentary vote, to start today, on the amendments.

The house, dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party, is expected to pass the measures, which include a ban on political work based on religion. Once approved, the amendments will be put to a popular referendum in April.

Amnesty International urged all lawmakers yesterday to reject the proposed laws, including an anti-terrorism clause, calling them the "greatest erosion of human rights in 26 years."

The anti-terrorism clause is intended to replace emergency laws in place since Islamist militants assassinated President Anwar Sadat 26 years ago.

Hazem Farouk, a member of the Brotherhood's parliament bloc, said the latest arrests occurred on Friday when 14 men, including 11 working at his office, were distributing medical supplies at an impoverished Cairo neighbourhood.

Farouk said the men were being detained despite an order from a public prosecutor to release them. An Interior Ministry spokesman said he was unaware of the incident.

The Muslim Brotherhood operates openly despite being banned since 1954. Members running as independents won nearly one-fifth of the 454-seat lower house of parliament in 2005.

Political analysts say the government will use the amendments to stop the group before it makes electoral gains that could help it eventually mount a serious threat to Mubarak's rule. The government says the proposed laws are part of political reforms.

The amendments would weaken the role of judges in monitoring elections and give police greater powers of arrest and wide authority to monitor private communications.

"The proposed constitutional amendments would simply entrench the long-standing system of abuse under Egypt's state of emergency powers and give the misuse of those powers a bogus legitimacy," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme.

Authorities and state media accuse the Brotherhood of harbouring an extremist agenda to establish a religious theology. The group, which rejects violence, says it wants a democratic state that does not exclude non-Muslims from power.

Around 350 Brotherhood members are now in detention, including third-in-command Khairat el-Shatir, who was referred last month to a military trial along with 39 others on charges including money laundering and terrorism.