EGYPT COURT TO TRY 1,228 BROTHERHOOD MEMBERS SATURDAY
Cairo, 20 Jumadil Awwal 2014/21 March 2014 (MINA) – A total of 1228 Muslim Brotherhood members, including group leader Mohamed Badie, will appear in court on Saturday to answer violence charges, the highest number of Brotherhood defendants to stand trial at one time.
The defendants face charges of committing violence in the Upper Egyptian province of Minya in August following the violent dispersal of protest camps in support of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, according Anadolu Agency report quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).
Hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators were killed when their sit-ins in Cairo and Giza were violently dispersed by security forces in mid-August.
Judicial sources said that six court districts had been allocated for trying the defendants as of March 22 for six days.
Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was removed from power by the military last July following mass protests against his presidency.
Egypt’s military-backed authorities have launched a massive crackdown on the Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power in 2012, since his ouster, arresting thousands of members and sympathizers.
An Egyptian court also sentenced 26 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death on charges of forming a “terrorist cell” aimed at attacking the Suez Canal.
The 26 defendants have been sentenced in absentia. Meanwhile, the Northern Cairo Criminal Court sentenced a 27th defendant to 15 years in prison, according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO) report.
The accusations include forming a terrorist cell in Cairo, Dakahliya, and Dammietta in order to target ships in the Suez Canal. The Egyptian Grand Mufti Shawki Ibrahim ratified the death sentence on Wednesday.
In February, Egyptian security forces have escalated their crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood, the major opponent of the July 3 military coup, handing down jail sentences for protesters totalling 945 years, and fines exceeding EGP 500,000.
Morsi supporters have been facing a crackdown by the Egyptian police since his ouster last summer. Hundreds have been killed and thousands detained on a variety of charges.
Not only citizens, Egypt also arrested foreign journalists who’s covering the anti-coup demonstrations. Several journalists, including Al Jazeera’s reporter and Austrlian Peter Greste are still being held in an Egyptian prison for alleged contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt is still in chaos after the first freely elected president ousted on July 3, 2013 following the announcement of Defense Minister General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and was followed by mass protests across Egypt governorates.
Afterwards, security forces violently dispersed every protest hold after the coup announcement, killing hundreds of people who support the ousted president.(T/P04/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
