EGYPT - Apr 12 - Egypt Arrests 10 Muslim Brotherhood Members.

Police detain nine members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group as part of Egypt's ongoing campaign against the country's strongest opposition group. The Brotherhood members were rounded up as they were holding a meeting inside an apartment owned by a member of the group in the northern city of Behira, said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press. Those arrested included a businessman and senior local leaders of the group in Behira, located about 180 kms (112 miles) north of Cairo, according to a statement posted on the Brotherhood's Web site. Police said they had also arrested Brotherhood press officer Abdel Moneim Mahmoud in Cairo. But his lawyer, Abdel Moneim abdel-Maksoud, denied this and later the police acknowledged they were still looking for Mahmoud. The arrests were the first since the referendum on controversial constitutional amendments, which the Brotherhood and other Egyptian opposition groups boycotted. The amendments, the largest since the constitution was drafted in 1971, carried new restrictions on civil liberties and was seen as aiming at deterring the Brotherhood from being recognized as a legal political player. Authorities initially intensified their campaign against the Brotherhood after student members of the group staged a militia-style demonstration at Al-Azhar University in Cairo in December, stoking government fears the group was forming a military wing. The group denied this, saying the new campaign was a reaction to their opposition to the constitutional amendments. In early February, Mubarak also ordered 40 other Brotherhood members - including its top financial figure, Khayrat el-Shater - put on trial before a military court on charges of money laundering and terrorism. The movement, banned since 1954, is Egypt's largest Islamic opposition group. Its lawmakers, who run as independents, currently hold 88 seats in the 454-seat parliament.