Egyptian Police Arrest 15 Brotherhood Students

Egyptian police detained 15 students from the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday,

Egyptian police detained 15 students from the Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, one day after Egypt's biggest opposition group said it would contest elections for the upper house of the parliament.

The students were arrested in the Nile Delta town of Shibin el-Kom, security officials and the Islamist group said, bringing to 48 the number of Brotherhood members arrested since Thursday as part of a four-month-old crackdown.

The group said on its Web site www.ikhwanonline.org the students had organised a cultural event at the University of Minufiya. Police surrounded the campus, arrested the students and confiscated computers and mobile phones, the Web site said.

A source in the left-wing Tagammu opposition party said five of its student activists were also picked up from the same area.

The Brotherhood, which operates openly despite being banned, said on Saturday it would field up to 20 candidates in elections for the upper house of the parliament in June, defying the government's attempts to drive it out of mainstream politics through a set of constitutional amendments passed in March.

The amendments, proposed by President Hosni Mubarak, include a ban on political activities based on religion. Analysts say authorities could use this to disqualify Brotherhood candidates who campaign under the slogan "Islam is the solution."

The Islamist group, which rejects violence, won a fifth of the seats in the influential lower house of the parliament in 2005, with members running as independents to bypass the ban.

That result made the Brotherhood the biggest opposition bloc in the house and alarmed the government, which has moved to stop the group before it makes more electoral gains that could help it mount a serious threat to Mubarak's rule, analysts say.

Hundreds of Brotherhood loyalists have been arrested in the latest clampdown, including third-in-command Khairat el-Shatir who was transferred to a military court along with 39 other members on charges including money laundering and terrorism.

The Brotherhood has denied the charges.