CAIRO: Sixteen Muslim Brotherhood (MB) detainees are expected to be released today after they posted bail Tuesday at the State Security Prosecution office after a court ruled they should no longer be detained.
Among the detainees are Deputy Supreme Guide Mahmoud Ezzat and members of the group’s ruling Guidance Office, Essam El-Erian, Abdel-Rahman El-Barr and Mohei Hamed. There are also 12 other detainees from various governorates.
El-Erian’s son told Daily News Egypt that while he was pleased that a court had ruled for his father’s release, there was a concern that State Security may arrest the detainees again after their official release, something that has happened in the past.
In a statement given to the Brotherhood’s website, MB lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maqsoud said that “despite the verdict, history has revealed that they may be defied and the Interior Ministry may contest the ruling.
“It is yet to be seen if authorities will respect the order which called for the release of the men who were unjustly detained simply for calling for their simplest rights as citizens, said the statement.
The North Cairo Criminal Court ordered the release of the detainees on Sunday after State Security had arrested them during dawn raids on their homes in February, 2010. Each detainee was to post LE 5,000 in bail.
The detainees were taken as part of an investigation into what was known as the “Qutbi case, accusing members of the banned but tolerated group of following the edicts of late Islamist thinker Sayed Qutb, a political detainee who was executed in prison during the Nasser era.
The MB website wrote off the charges, saying the detainees were “leveled with a host of fabricated accusations by authorities. They concocted charges included the setting up of training camps to stage attacks in Egypt.
“The MB has been harshly targeted by the ruling regime and escalations have continued with the impending Shoura and parliamentary elections scheduled to take place early autumn, it continued.
MB MP Saad El-Katatny previously told Daily News Egypt, “Security bodies have always tried to pressure the Brotherhood by arresting its members thinking that this will affect its plans. This year there will be important events like the parliamentary elections and next year the presidential elections.
“They’ve tried it many times and it hasn’t worked before, he added, “We are exercising our legal and constitutional rights and will continue to do so.
Prior to this recent spate of arrests, the Brotherhood had undergone an acrimonious changing of the guard when appointing a new Supreme Guide to replace Mohamed Mahdi Akef and a new Guidance Office, the highest ruling body in the group.
Ezzat is seen as the hardliner of the group, and his recent appointment as the Deputy Supreme Guide was seen as a victory for the hardliners against the more reformist members of the group, spearheaded by Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Futouh, who wasn’t appointed to the new Guidance Office.
El-Erian is the most prominent reformist in the newly-appointed polit-bureau.
