Twenty-five alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested Friday afternoon in the Delta governorate of Beheira over their participation in 11/11 protests.
Some minor demonstrations erupted in a few governorates, following the call for protests led by Turkey-based Yasser El-Omda through the Ghalaba Movement (“Movement of the Poor”) Facebook page, state-run Al-Ahram reported.
The security apparatuses in the governorates succeeded in dispersing the demonstrations via tear gas and arrests.
According to Al-Ahram, Kafr El Dwar in Beheira witnessed two marches in reaction to the protest calls. They were dispersed by security forces that arrested 18 of the participants, while six were arrested in nearby Hosh Eissa.
Security apparatuses also arrested an alleged Brotherhood member while he was participating in a little protest in the town of Abu Hummus in Beheira.
Shehab Center for Human Rights stated in a report regarding security violations during protests that security apparatuses assaulted protesters in the governorates of Dakhalia, Minya, and Kafr Al-Sheikh, while another protest was dispersed in Al-Arbaeen square in Suez.
On Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s local faction encouraged participation in Friday’s protests, the group’s spokesperson Mohamed Montasser said in a statement published online.
“The group calls on its members to participate and promote the protests, or any revolutionary movement which upholds the demands of the Egyptian people for bread, freedom, and social justice,” the statement read.
The group further clarified that it strongly opposes the “catastrophic economic decisions that affect the majority of the people”.
The protest calls erupted in September amid a social media campaign by the Ghalaba Movement’s Facebook page, in order to defend the “poor”. The calls preceded major economic reform policies that raised concerns regarding their effects on classes of lower income, including the government’s decision to liberate the Egyptian pound on 3 November.
