Amnesty International on Thursday urged Egyptian authorities to release or charge all detained supporters of opposition groups ahead of next month's parliamentary elections. The call follows a new wave of arrests against Muslim Brotherhood members.
At least 75 members of the technically banned group were arrested and detained without charge on Tuesday in police raids in Alexandria.
Media sources said they were arrested while hanging campaign posters bearing the phrase "God is Great."
The Supreme Electoral Commission recently banned all the religious slogans, arguably in a direct move toward the Brotherhood's long-time campaign maxim “Islam is the Solution.”
The Muslim Brotherhood won one-fifth of the seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections despite a police crackdown at the time.
Four members of an opposition youth activist group, the 6 April Movement, were also arrested on Wednesday.
They were charged with holding an unauthorized public gathering and distributing leaflets calling for a boycott of the election, and then released on bail, Amnesty said.
"These arrests are the latest evidence of a growing government clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups in the run up to the first round of the elections on 28 November," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa.
More than 260 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested since its chairman, Mohamed Badie, on 9 October announced the group will participate in elections.
