after new arrests
48 Egyptian pro-reform activists, including 3 women,in detention

Police arrested 11 pro-reform secular activists
Sunday, bringing to 48 the number of secular activists currently in
custody after two weeks of protests against disciplinary hearings for two
judges.

 The detentions represent a shift in the policing of more than a year
of protests by secularists. Security held detainees for no longer than a
few hours other than in last July when a handful of activists remained
in custody for a few days.

 Throughout, the banned Muslim Brotherhood has been policed
differently. In periodic crackdowns, its members were held for several weeks or even months.

 The pro-reform Kifaya group said Sunday on its web site that 11
activists were taken into custody. Police sources, speaking on condition of
anonymity because they are not authorized to deal with the media,
confirmed the arrests.

 Leila Soueif, a Cairo University math professor, was one of some 30
activists who were heading to a Cairo court house when the arrests
occurred. She said they had intended to show support for a dozen people whose
detention was up for renewal.

 "They (security) surrounded us and grabbed some of us as they shouted
obscenities," Soueif told The Associated Press.

 Her son Alaa Seif, 25, was one of those arrested Sunday.

 Ahmed Ragheb,lawyer for Kifaya, which means enough in Arabic, said
that three of the 11 were released several hours after the arrests.

 Taking into account Sunday's arrests and the three people released, 48 activists arrested over the past two weeks remain in detention. Three
of them are women.

 Since late April, police have arrested dozens of activists involved in peaceful protests against disciplinary hearings for two reformist
judges.

 Judges Mahmoud Mekki and Hesham el-Bastawisy, members of the Court of
Cassation _ the country's highest appellate court _ were put before the
disciplinary board for speaking to the media about alleged rigging of
last year's parliamentary elections.

 The 40 people detained previously began a hunger strike Saturday to
protest what the Kifaya web site said they had described as "inhuman
treatment" and "threats of brutal torture."

 On Sunday, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the country's
oldest human rights organization, condemned the latest arrests and
demanded the immediate release of the activists.

"Their arrest was more a kidnap operation, as they were assaulted by
police forces and were thrown in police vans," the EOHR said in a
statement faxed to the AP.

 The New York-based Human Rights Watch also criticized the policing of
demonstrations.

 "Deploying thousands of police to smother these protests shows all too clearly that President (Hosni) Mubarak has zero tolerance for peaceful
dissent," Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North
Africa division at HRW, said in a statement issued Saturday.

 HRW said about 100 people, including Muslim Brotherhood members as
well as secularists, were arrested in the past two weeks.

Associated Press Writer