The Egyptian authorities on Tuesday detained at least eight people including businessmen, journalists and political figures on charges of plotting to bring down the government, reported Reuters.
In an official statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior said Zyad Elelaimy, a prominent member of the Social Democratic Party and the Civil Democratic Movement, was arrested along with seven other people. Elelaimy’s party was one of the main protest groups that led to the departure of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 uprising.
The statement said that all the eight people who have been arrested were loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt designated a terrorist group in 2013. It added that the eight suspects were the most prominent figures arrested.
The interior ministry accused the detainees of involvement in a plan financed through leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood abroad “to carry out violent and disorderly acts against state institutions simultaneously with creating a state of revolutionary momentum”.
According to sources, the detained eight have been placed in temporary detention for 15 days.
In a statement, the Civil Democratic Movement (CDM), a coalition of liberal and left-leaning parties, denied Elelaimy and the others arrested had any connections with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The international rights group, Amnesty International, has described the “chilling” arrests as politically motivated. The rights group criticized the arrests as part of “the Egyptian authorities’ systematic persecution and brutal crackdown on anyone who dares to criticize them.”
“The crackdown leaves no doubt about the authorities’ vision for political life in Egypt; an open-air prison with no opposition, critics or independent reporting allowed,” Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty’s North Africa director of research, said in a statement.
The arrests were made after the interior ministry said 19 businesses were raided by police on Tuesday in the capital Cairo and the cities of Alexandria and Ismaila. The raids were done on the businesses allegedly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and accused of funding a plot to overthrow the state.
