CAIRO // The lawyer for senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood arrested on Monday has described the dawn raids as a pre-emptive strike against the Islamist group ahead of upcoming elections.
Fifteen leading figures of Egypt's largest opposition group were seized when security forces broke into their homes as they slept.
The arrests came just three weeks after the banned group elected its new leader, Mohammed Badie, a conservative figure, who gave a conciliatory speech on his acceptance of the position.
Those arrested included the group's deputy leader, Mahmoud Ezzat, 65, known as the "iron man" and "the king maker", who is believed to be behind the rise of Mr Badie.
Essam el-Eryan, 55, a spokesman for the Brotherhood and member of its Maktab el-Ershad, or guidance bureau, was one of those arrested. Mohie Hamed, also a guidance bureau member, was expected to hand himself to police yesterday, as he was not in when police raided his home on Monday, according to the group's lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud.
The raids came as no surprise to Brotherhood members and observers in Egypt and many expect more arrests in the run up to elections for the Egyptian parliament's Upper House, or Shura Council in April and legislative elections later this year.
Mohammed Morsi, one of the spokesmen of the new leader, Mr Badie, recently said the group, which advocates an Islamic state in Egypt, had decided to run in Shura Council elections.
While Brotherhood members managed to grab 20 per cent of seats in the parliament in 2005, the constitution has since been amended to make it almost impossible for candidates belonging to the group to run.
"The crackdown was expected, and more arrests are on the way," said Mr Abdel Maqsoud, who was on his way to attend the interrogation of the detainees at the state security's headquarters, east of Cairo, when he spoke to The National yesterday.
"It's a pre-emptive strike against the Brotherhood in general and a message to all its leaders from different generations in different provinces, that the state will continue to root it out," he added.
Unlike previous clampdowns on the Brotherhood by the state, the latest raid took place while the men were sleeping at their homes, not during organisational meetings.
A statement on the Brotherhood's website said the dawn raids were conducted in a "barbaric way" that scared the "wives and children" of those arrested who were "put behind bars for demanding nothing except reform and freedom, and following a middle way that Egypt needs now more than ever".
The message added: "The Muslim Brotherhood emphasises that these arrests won't make them change the path it has chosen for the nation's progress, and it will carry on its struggle through all possible peaceful means to achieve freedom, confront corruption and combat despotism."
The statement suggested the arrests were also related to the group's support of Palestinians and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as this year's elections.
The conciliatory speech of Mr Badie on January 16, when he was announced as the eighth leader of the group, has not appeared to ease tensions with the state, which considers the group, founded in 1928, to be its arch enemy.
"Concerning our stance towards the regime in our country, we emphasise that the Brotherhood was never its enemy, while they keep squeezing us, confiscating our money and arresting our members," said Mr Badie, 66.
The group said that about 5,000 of its members were arrested last year. Most of them have been released. Several leaders of the group are serving up to 10 years in prison for membership in an outlawed group that seeks to overthrow the government after a military case and trial that started in late 2006. The case was seen by many as retaliation for the group's stunning victory in the 2005 elections.
Despite being officially banned since 1954, the group, which renounced violence in the 1970s, has hundreds of thousands of members and supporters across Egypt and abroad.
After their huge success in the 2005 parliamentary elections, the constitution was amended to make it more difficult for Brotherhood members to win seats.
The most significant changes remove judicial oversight of elections, making them more vulnerable to government interference, and lay the ground work for a ban on independent candidates.
As such, the Brotherhood is not expected to win more than five seats in this year's elections. In 2008, they were unable to win any seats in the Shura Council elections.
But according to Hamdi Hassan, the spokesman of the group's bloc of 88 members in parliament, running in elections is "a strategic decision and a religious belief" rather than a political move.
"We are used to being arrested, imprisoned and we're ready to continue to pay the price for our principles, not to come to power," said Mr Hassan.
"That's why we survive and we always have new cadres of leaders, as we won't give up our legitimate demand of peaceful reform, and we use election times to increase people's awareness of their rights, amid illiteracy in general and political illiteracy."
Several Egyptian and international human rights groups condemned Monday's arrests and demanded the immediate release of those detained.
"The state has a strategic decision of no reconciliation, no negotiations and no recognition of the Brotherhood," said Ammar Ali Hassan, a political scientist and expert on Islamic movements.
"No co-operation, no alliances and no green light that would allow the group to regain its social and political power."
nmagd@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
More on Palestine-Israeli relations
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
