Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Tuesday security forces had accused 22 of its members detained in the last week of recruiting youths to send to fight in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
The Brotherhood dismissed the accusation as ridiculous. Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, lawyer for the 22, said the accusation was made in a report filed by state security investigators to prosecutors to secure arrest warrants for the men, who have not been officially charged. "Any talk that there is training is meaningless and laughable," leading Brotherhood member Essam el-Erian said.
"(The accusation) indicates an inability to deal with the Brotherhood. Why, when they are making gains in politics, would they resort to failed solutions?" he said. Brotherhood members standing as independents won nearly a fifth of the seats in parliament in elections last year in their strongest ever performance at the ballot box. The group has been officially banned since 1954.
The group states that it believes in peaceful and gradual steps towards its vision of a more Islamic state and society. It gave up violence decades ago but says that Palestinians and Iraqis have the right to resist foreign occupation.
The men are also charged with membership of the Brotherhood and being in possession of the group's literature. Members are often held for weeks without charge.
The Brotherhood says recent arrests of its members are part of government moves to restrict political freedoms in the Arab world's most populous country.
State security investigators had accused the men of starting to recruit members and preparing physical training camps for them in the desert, Abdel Maqsoud said.
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