Police raid Islamist party HQ ahead of presser on Rabea report

Police raided the headquarters of the Istiqlal Party, minutes ahead of a planned press conference by the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Anti-Coup Alliance on Tuesday. 

The presser was held to "reply to the falsified claims of the National Council for Human Rights and their recent report about the day of the dispersal of the sit-in," the Anti-Coup Alliance statement said, in reference to the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in. 

The National Council for Human Rights issued a report on Monday blaming supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who took part in the Rabea al-Adaweya sit-in last July and August for the ensuing violence.

Protesters there had demanded the reinstatement of former President Mohamed Morsi after he was ousted through a combination of mass protests and a military takeover. The report puts the number of fatalities at 624 civilians and eight policemen, while Muslim Brotherhood figures say more than 1,000 people died in the violence.

Tuesday's presser, which was to be held in what was previously the Islamist Labor Party headquarters, was stopped by police minutes before starting.

Police barricaded the street of the party headquarters and prevented journalists from reaching it, including Mada Masr. "The conference was just canceled," a plainclothes policeman said. 

The Ikhwan Online portal of the Muslim Brotherhood said that a number of participants in the conference were arrested during the raid. But an eyewitness, one of the neighboring buildings' doormen, said he did not see police arresting anyone. 

Hamza Sarawy, a newly appointed spokesperson to the Anti-Coup Alliance, told Mada Masr that two organizers were briefly arrested during the raid but were released shortly after. 

"We use the party as a venue since all other spaces that we could possibly use have now been raided and shut down," he said. "The [Istiqlal] party has newly joined the Alliance."

Last December, the government designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, outlawing all its activities. Accordingly the group's supporters organized today's presser under the helm of a different party, namely Istiqlal. 

Sarawy claimed that Tuesday's press conference would have been the first event of its size since the Brotherhood was outlawed, adding that with most media advisers to Morsi and the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party arrested, it was not possible to organize events.

"We will find ways to organize more events and roundtables because we have a message and it needs to be delivered," he said.