Kuwait deports backers of Egypt reformist

[NGONGE]

KUWAIT CITY (AFP)

 

Kuwait deported 17 supporters of leading pro-reform Egyptian activist and former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday, a day after arresting them, a security official said.

 

"Seventeen people have been expelled back to their country," the official said.

 

Earlier, a Kuwaiti security official had said "20 to 25 Egyptians were arrested," some at a pro-ElBaradei gathering at a Kuwait City suburb on Friday and others at their homes.

 

The fate of the others arrested was not immediately known, nor was it clear how many were resident in Kuwait.

 

The arrests came after the group posted a notice on the Internet about the gathering, the source said.

 

All of those detained were "being held Saturday by state security forces and awaiting a political decision about their fates," an official had said earlier in the day.

 

There was no other official comment from Kuwait about the incident, but a foreign ministry official in Cairo said officials there were aware that a group of Egyptians had been arrested in Kuwait.

 

He later clarified that the ministry had heard of the arrests through Egyptian media.

 

An airport source in Cairo said the group's arrival was expected.

 

George Ishak, a Cairo spokesman for ElBaradei's National Association for Change, said 34 Egyptians were arrested, four on Thursday and the rest on Friday.

 

"They were holding a meeting on Friday to form the first association to support ElBaradei, but it appears Kuwait did not have tolerance for it," he told AFP.

 

ElBaradei, 67, has emerged as Egypt's most high profile pro-reform leader after retiring from the International Atomic Energy Agency last year.

 

The Nobel laureate has said he would run for president if constitutional restrictions on independent nominations in next year's presidential elections were changed.

 

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak faces mounting opposition at home after almost three decades of rule and has ruled out amending the constitution.

 

His government has rebuffed foreign calls for reform and dismissed as "unacceptable" a call last week from the U.S. State Department for free elections.

 

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