Brotherhood leader arrested in Jordan

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) : Jordan arrested a senior member of the country's Muslim Brotherhood yesterday on charges of "incitement" against the authorities, a judicial source said, as the group's political wing demanded his release.

Mohamed Said Bakr, a member of the Brotherhood's consultative council, was detained for 15 days by prosecutors after criticising the government at an event marking the end of the conflict in Gaza, the source said. The Jordanian Brotherhood's political wing, the Islamic Action Front, condemned the arrest.

"It is unacceptable that clerics and activists should be arrested on the basis of positions they expressed," said IAF Secretary General Mohamed Al Zayoud on the party's website.

At the event in Amman on Friday, Bakr used insulting terms to describe Jordan's leaders, and accused the government of being "subject to the United States".