Islamists appeal for release of prisoners

Following the release of 453 members of the Muslim Brotherhood from prison on 19 January, leading members of the banned but tolerated Islamist group are now appealing for the release of a further 300. The detainees have been held since the heavily-contested third round of parliamentary elections in the first week of December 2005. “The continued enforcement of the Emergency Law provided the government with the grounds to justify the arrest of party members,” said Abdel Moneim Abul Futouh, a leading Muslim Brotherhood member. “The only reason why they were arrested in the first place was because they were trying to participate in the elections,” he added. A source in the interior ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were detained on various charges, which he did not specify. For the most part, the charges related to laws passed following the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat in 1981 by Muslim extremists, he said, which were aimed at minimising "extremist activity" in Egypt. The detainees are being held in the high-security Burg al-Arab prison, which is “reputed for its poor conditions, in terms of both its lack of adequate health care and its prohibition of visitors,” Abul Futouh noted. Parliamentarians affiliated with the group, which made sweeping gains in the recent poll, are making high-level appeals for their release, including in the People’s Assembly. “Muslim Brotherhood MPs are now playing a very positive role in parliament, pushing to free the remaining 300 prisoners,” said Abul Futouh. The unofficial party’s rising profile in mainstream politics, he added, had given the group more influence and a greater degree of outreach to the public. Essam al-Arian, another prominent member of the brotherhood, said the ongoing detentions “proved the government’s sheer inability to practise politics in an honourable, transparent way”. The recent parliamentary contest, held in three voting rounds, began on 9 November and ran through to 6 December. Following surprising gains by the Muslim Brotherhood in the first round, scores of the group’s members were subsequently detained in constituencies where Islamist candidates were poised to win. In the end, the group won 88 parliamentary seats after fielding candidates in 141 constituencies. They ran as independents. The ruling National Democratic Party, headed by long-time President Hosni Mubarak, won 315 seats in the 454-seat assembly, thus retaining the two-thirds majority needed to control legislation. The elections were marred by widespread reports of electoral fraud and violence between voters and security forces, which left a total of 12 dead.