CAIRO: A Cairo court on Thursday ordered the release of a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and nine others, detained last month as part of a massive clampdown on Egypt s Islamists, a judicial source said.
Essam El-Erian, a member of the opposition group s political bureau, and the nine other Brothers had been held since Aug. 17 in preventative detention accused of holding secret meetings and possessing illegal documents.
They appealed their detention and the court accepted their appeal, the source said, adding however that the 10 have not yet been released. We are waiting to see what happens, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a member of the group, told AFP. We have seen instances of people being re-arrested immediately after their release.
He said 150 members are currently behind bars, including 40 who face military trial.
The Muslim Brotherhood is officially outlawed in Egypt. The group holds more than a fifth of the seats in parliament, but its representatives sit as independents because of its illegal status.
The latest crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, starting from December, has especially targeted the organization s funding, freezing its assets and arresting prominent businessmen associated with the movement.
