Brotherhood spokesperson arrested

Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson Ahmed Aref has become the latest Muslim Brotherhood leader to be rounded up by security forces. He was arrested on Wednesday night, Brotherhood and state media confirmed.

Aref was reportedly staying at his in-laws' house in Nasr City, near the location of the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in dispersed by police and army forces on August 14, six weeks after it was set up by the Brotherhood to demand the reinstatement of deposed President Mohamed Morsi

According to the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, Aref did not resist arrest.

State-run Al-Ahram newspaper published comments made by Aref's wife Iman Saafan following the arrest, in which she said she needs no pity from people because she and her family took the path they did aware of all its troubles. In the comments, quoted from a note she posted on Facebook, Saafan said six Central Security Force trucks came to arrest her husband in a scene reminiscent of the arrest of her father, also a Brotherhood leader.

"They came back when we had forgotten about them," she wrote, referring to so-called "dawn visitors," agents of the now-disbanded State Security Investigation Services who implemented clampdowns on dissidents under former regimes. "With them Egypt's depressing face has come back, when we thought it was gone with the January 25 revolution. But it seems we were naive and we believed the lie that is freedom and democracy."

Saafan said that she went down to bid her husband goodbye as the police put him in a truck. He was confident, she said, and gestured a sign of victory as the vehicle moved away.

Just a few minutes ahead of his arrest, Aref slammed the security service for its oppressive measures against those opposing it. "We have to believe that the only hope is in the January 25 revolution and its preservation, in order for it to be strengthened. We won't abandon legitimacy and there is no place for military coups among people thirsty for freedom and dignity."

This week saw the arrest of Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie as well as Islamist preacher and Brotherhood supporter Safwat Hegazy.