ARRESTS IN EGYPT

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28371, 2 September 1957, Page 11

ARRESTS IN EGYPT

Communist Cell Reported (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) CAIRO, August 31. Eighteen members of a Communist underground cell have been arrested in Egypt, an Interior Ministry spokesman said in Cairo today. The spokesman said that police had uncovered a “Communist underground organisation. the ‘Communist Party of Egypt’.” The trial date of those arrested would be fixed by the State Prosecutor.

The announcement of Communist arrests came a year after 40 other Communists were sentenced to prison terms and fines. In June, 1956, a Military Court in Cairo passed sentences on Communists ranging from two to seven years’ imprisonment or hard labour.

Arab political quarters emphasised the importance of the arrests at the present juncture, when part of the Western press claimed that Egypt and Syrip were becoming the bridgeheads of communism’s advance in the Middle East. The newspaper, “Al Ahram,” said in a leading article that the arrests and impending trial of the Communists were proof of Egypt’s policy of non-alignment. “Al Ahram” said .that when Egypt concluded the Soviet Arms deal in 1955, the American press splashed on its front pages that Egypt’s capital was non-Moscow. but the truth was that Egypt adhered to her ‘ own' principles, inflicting “most severe punishment” bn the importers of prohibited doctrines.