SCORES OF BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS ARRESTED IN EGYPT

Cairo, 22 Jumadil Awwal 1436/13 March 2015 (MINA) – Egyptian police have arrested scores of Muslim Brotherhood members ahead of a major investment summit aimed at reviving the country’s ailing economy.

“Security forces have carried out a lawful preemptive strike targeting mid-ranking members of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organization and its allies suspected of involvement in violent attacks across the country,” the Interior Ministry said Thursday, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting

The ministry said that police had arrested 75 Muslim Brotherhood members, adding that 43 of them had been wanted for violence-related charges.

Police also said they had arrested the leader of a group that recently claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on security forces and government buildings.

The Interior Ministry said the group’s leader had “confessed” to having joined the Brotherhood in 2011.

The ministry’s announcement comes one day before an international investment conference in the resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh, which the Egyptian government hopes will inject life into an economy battered by four years of political turmoil.

Bombings have become commonplace in Egypt since Morsi – Egypt’s first democratically elected president – was ousted by the army in mid-2013.

While the government accuses Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood of carrying out the attacks, the group emphatically denies the allegations, saying it is committed to purely peaceful activism.

Since Morsi’s ouster, Egypt’s army-backed authorities have launched a wide-ranging crackdown on supporters of Morsi and his embattled Muslim Brotherhood group, detaining thousands and killing hundreds.

Egyptian authorities have also branded the Brotherhood a “terrorist” group on claims that it condones violence – an allegation dismissed by the movement. (T/P002/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)