Egyptian authorities have detained seven members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic opposition group.
The arrests on Monday, which included three senior leaders, were part of a crackdown on the organization, Abdel Moneim Abdel-Maksoud, the group's lawyer, said.
A security official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the arrests but gave no reason.
No charges were filed, Abdel-Maksoud said.
Arrests decried
Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, a high-ranking Brotherhood member, was one of the people detained in the early morning raid, along with two other senior leaders.
"That's really a shame that Aboul-Fotouh was one of those detained, especially because he's considered one of the most moderate leaders in the Brotherhood," Kamal Helbawi, the founder of the Muslim Association of Britain, said.
He told Al Jazeera: "He was also the secretary-general of the Arab Union for Medical Doctors and that's why hundreds of the union's members are angry because of his arrest specifically."
Helbawi, who is also a former spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said: "Arrests in Egypt against the Brotherhood have become a routine and the government is trying really hard to send them away from the track of political life in Egypt."
The Brotherhood, which was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, began as a religious, political movement but now holds a fifth of the seats in Egypt's parliament representing the largest bloc after the ruling party headed by Hosni Mubarak, the country's president.
PHOTO CAPTION
Egyptian riot police block the way for Muslim Brotherhood protestors during a demonstration in Cairo, 2008.
Al-Jazeera