Egyptian security forces arrested scores of members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday, but hours later the group demonstrated against the government.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Mohammed Osama, initially put the number of arrests at 48, claiming most members were taken into custody during early raids in at least five different provinces. Hours later, group official Badr Mohammed Badr said 64 were detained, The AP reported.

Top Brotherhood official and prominent physician Abdel-Monaim Abul-Fetouh and businessman Abdel-Fatah Rizq were among the detainees, according to Osama and Badr.

The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's oldest and largest Islamic political group. The group was established in 1928 and outlawed in 1954.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian was jailed for 35 years by an emergency tribunal for spying for Iran and plotting to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in a sentence that cannot be appealed. According to <i>AFP</I>, the court also sentenced former Iranian diplomat Mohammed Reza Doust to 25 years' imprisonment in absentia for being Egyptian Mahmud Aid Dabbus' handler.

© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)