CAIRO: Authorities have released a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood after he had a heart attack but will keep 15 of his colleagues behind bars pending charges, a security source said Thursday.
Mahmoud Hussein, a member of the banned opposition group’s key Orientation Council, was freed so he could have open-heart surgery after he went into cardiac arrest in detention, the source said.
Hussein was arrested along with the others, including spokesman Essam El-Erian, in a raid on a meeting at a house in Cairo on Aug. 17. The others will be detained for at least another 14 days pending charges.
Hundreds of members of the Islamist group have been arrested in recent months in an ongoing crackdown.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which describes itself as a moderate organization that wants to bring Islamic law to Egypt, has been outlawed since 1954.
The group holds more than a fifth of the seats in parliament, but its representatives sit as independents because of its illegal status.
