A US-based human rights group today called on Egypt today to release a prominent Muslim Brotherhood activist, blogger and journalist.
Abdel Moneim Mahmoud was detained at Cairo airport a week ago as he tried to travel to Sudan to report for London-based Arabic satellite channel al-Hiwar on human rights in the Arab world.
Mahmoud runs the Ana Ikhwan (I am a Brother) blog in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, and has criticised the government over human rights abuses.
"Once again, the Egyptian government is prosecuting a journalist because he has reported on human rights abuses in the country," Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
"The government should focus its energies on ending the abuses, not silencing those who expose them," she added.
Mahmoud's arrest came amid a government clampdown on the opposition Brotherhood group. Rights organisations have also complained that Egypt was becoming less tolerant of public shows of dissent, especially on the Internet.
Mahmoud also helps run the Brotherhood's English website www.ikhwanweb.info, and has been at the forefront of a campaign to release dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members in detention in Egypt, where the group is formally banned and members subject to sporadic arrest campaigns.
The Brotherhood is Egypt's most powerful opposition group, holding about a fifth of the seats in the country's parliament through members elected as independents.
Analysts say the government wants to stop the Brotherhood from making further political gains that could jeopardise the traditional dominance of President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.