Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said on 2 January some of its members had been wrongfully arrested in United Arab Emirates (UAE) on allegations of helping to train local Islamists in subversion tactics. “I know 11 people were detained. I know that some of them are from the Brotherhood,” Mahmoud Ghozlan, a Brotherhood spokesman, was reported as saying in Cairo. “The claim that they are a cell seeking to destabilise the country is devoid of truth.”
Egypt has sent senior officials to the United Arab Emirates following the arrest of a group of Egyptians in the Persian Gulf country. On 2 January, Essam el-Haddad, an adviser to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi for foreign affairs and international cooperation, met with UAE Vice President and PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum over the detention of 11 Egyptians.