More than 100 members of an Islamist movement, inluding four Britons, have been arrested in Egypt for "trying to spread extremist ideas", government daily Al-Ahram said today, quoting officials. The state security prosector's department had decided the group from the Hizb Al-Tahrir (Islamic Liberation Party) were to be kept in custody for two weeks, the newspaper said without giving dates for the arrests in Cairo and in the south.
In London, the Foreign Office announced in early April that four Britons had been arrested in Egypt.
Cairo police had said they were believed to have links with Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda, blamed for the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Cairo.

However, a representative of Hizb al-Tahrir in Britain, Imran Waheed, said only three of the four were members of the party, which he said "never carried out military of terrorist activities," as that would go against Muslim belief.
Egyptian officials told Al-Ahram the 100 arrested had no ties with Al-Qaeda but maintained links with the party's offices in Austria, Britain, and Germany, from where they received financial support.

Bureau Report