Police cracked down on demonstrators in central Cairo, arresting 100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including one of its leaders, as they were protesting on Thursday near a Cairo court where two hearings for pro-reform figures were scheduled.
The show of force came after the European Union and the United States condemned the handling of demonstrations in Cairo last week when 255 people were arrested.
On Thursday, thousands of riot police and hundreds of plainclothes officers were deployed in streets leading to the courthouse in downtown Cairo as they attempted to prevent opposition activists from gathering.
In one such instance, security arrested Essam al-Erian of the banned but tolerated Brotherhood — the largest opposition bloc in Egypt’s Parliament with 88 of 454 seats.
Al-Erian (53) was jailed for five months last year during a cross country wave of protests. Authorities released him after Egypt’s first presidential elections last fall.
Brotherhood figures said 210 of its members were detained on Thursday but police could not immediately confirm that figure. About 50 members of the group were arrested on Wednesday.
Police dealt violently with demonstrators on several instances on Thursday.
Plainclothes police were seen plunging into a crowd of demonstrators and beating them with short batons until they fell to the ground.
Elsewhere, police grabbed a middle aged man by his collar and hit him repeatedly as he screamed, ”I didn’t do anything.”
In another instance a policeman repeatedly slapped a young man in the face using both hands.
Thursday’s protests by dozens of Brotherhood and other opposition activists came as the disciplinary hearings resumed against two pro-reform judges and as a leading opposition figure launched an appeal to overturn a conviction and five-year prison sentence.
Neither of the judges called before the panel for speaking to the media about allegations of fraud during last year’s parliamentary elections attended the hearing. Hesham El-Bastiwisy was in a hospital recovering from emergency heart surgery on Wednesday. His colleague Mahmoud Mekki told al-Jazeera from the court building that he would only attend the session if police withdrew from the area and if those arrested were released.
El-Bastiwisy and Mekki are part of a group of judges who have held sit-in demonstrations over the past year calling for the independence of the judiciary from the executive authority.
In the same downtown Cairo courthouse were the judges’ case was in session, a hearing was under way into the appeal request by Ayman Nour, the top contender in last September’s presidential elections.
Nour, who was found guilty of forging documents needed to found his party, did not attend because his presence was not required, his wife Gamila Ismail told the Associated Press by telephone.
On the nearby streets, Brotherhood members, activists from other groups including Nour’s al-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party and the pro-reform Kifaya movement tried to outrun police and regroup to shout slogans supporting the judges.
”Oh judges, fear no one but God,” dozens of protesters who apparently belonged to the Brothers chanted.
”We are the Brothers,” another group shouted as they defiantly pumped their fists in the air.
About 50 protesters including members of Parliament, Brotherhood, Kifaya and al-Ghad party members held a silent protest across the street from the courthouse.
Several protesters wore sashes proclaiming that they were members of Parliament, and some waved banners and placards toward passing cars.
”It’s not only the judges’ battle ,but that of everyone and the judges are at the forefront,” Brotherhood parliamentarian Mustafa Mohammed said.
”The regime became accustomed to deploying security to prevent people from expressing their opinion and deprive them of their freedom,” he added.
Mohammed Sobhi, a 20-year-old member of the liberal al-Ghad party, joined the protest because, ”I want to send a message to the regime and say enough to corruption.”
Sayed Abdel Atti, 29, an al-Ghad member held up a banner Kifaya banner. ”I came here and I am ready to be arrested or face anything bad they do to me,” he said.
”We want to see someone else other than him,” Abdel Atti said in reference to President Hosni Mubarak, ”We want change.” – Sapa-AP