CAIRO: Family and friends of 22 young men arrested in Egypt on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks protested Friday against the detentions.
More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in the low-income El-Zawiyah El-Hamrah district of Cairo chanting slogans urging authorities to Release our innocent sons, and asserting that they would give our blood in exchange for our freedom.
According to eyewitnesses, security forces detained seven protesters, but police sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said only few people gathered briefly.
The Interior Ministry announced Wednesday the arrest of members of a newly uncovered Islamist group called the Al-Ta efa Al-Mansourah, Arabic for the Victorious Sect. Detainees ranged in age from 19 to 31 and were accused of planning attacks in Egypt on tourist areas, natural gas lines and Muslim and Christian clerics.
The announcement came less than a week following the killing of a Christian and a Muslim in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria during attacks on churches and ensuing sectarian clashes.
It also preceded the review for renewal in late May of emergency laws, in place since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Egypt s tourism sector is one of the country s top hard currency earners and was the target of terrorist attacks three times in 2005.
Protestors Friday said the arrested were upstanding people.
They are respectable innocent young men, said Tareq Nasr, the older brother of Mohammed Nasr, who was number 16 in the Interior Ministry list.
Nasr said his brother, age 25, worked 15-hour days at his mini-market.
He had no time or energy to do this, Nasr said. Men, women, children and even Christian neighbors joined the demonstration.
Zakaria Nushi, a 40-year-old Christian shopkeeper whose store is next to Mohammed Nasr s, said the arrest was unfair.
There is no way Mohammed was an extremist, I was his neighbor for years, said Nushi. He was religious, but he was very nice to me, Nushi added.
There was nothing suspicious in his behavior. AP
