Top MB Lawyer Slams the Arrests of 550 MB

 Muslim Brotherhood top lawyer Abdul Monem Abdel-Maqsoud expressed that the security sweeps against members and leaders of the group has taken an upward curve since the group announced that it would participate in the elections. He described the arbitrary arrests as a conspiracy to rig the parliament polls.

To date the latest count has revealed that approximately 550 detainees have been arrested by security personnel nationwide including 3 women and 5 fielding candidates. Prosecution has ordered the release of 285 detainees, and transferred 89 for trial. Abdul Maqsoud maintained that he expected the arrests to increase even more as the elections neared stressing that the aggressive attack against the MB establishments also escalated noticeably with the beginning of the nominations of the MB.

He argued that the government was unjustly applying the emergency law in order to intimidate further the public and prevent them from expressing their views through the active and positive participation in the election, stressing it was a violation of the norms and international covenants to human rights, as well as a violation of the law and the Egyptian constitution, which guarantees the right of participation for all.

Abdul Maqsoud highlighted that such arbitrary actions will lose public confidence, rendering them reluctant to participate in the polls.