Dozens arrested in Muslim Brotherhood sweep in Tajikistan

AKIPRESS.COM - Authorities in Tajikistan have reportedly detained dozens of suspected members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, EurasiaNet reports.
RFE/RL's Tajik service, Radio Ozodi, on January 6 reported that those taken into custody include university teachers and heads of local government. At least 27 have been detained in the sweep, which has taken place over the past week, Ozodi reported.
The Muslim Brotherhood, a politically engaged and conservative Islamic group founded in Egypt in the 1920s, was banned in Tajikistan in 2006.
According to the relatives of one suspect who spoke to Ozodi, security personnel confiscated religious literature during a search of their home.
Payom, a website with links to the exiled opposition, offered an even higher estimate for the number of people detained - somewhere between 100 and 250. It said around 20 of those people were university lecturers.
A government source confirmed to Eurasianet that there were teachers among those detained, but declined to provide more than a few specifics.
Among the detainees is a 60-year-old citizen of Egypt, Ali Mansur Bayumi, and his family, Eurasianet's source said. Bayumi taught at the Middle Eastern studies department at the Tajik National University in Dushanbe.
The case is sent the General Prosecutor's Office and has been classified as confidential.