604 Military Court Sentences Brotherhood Leaders
A security cordon keeps out press, monitors, and family members from Haikstip Military Base, April 15, 2008 (Photo: Ikhwanonline.com)
A military court at the Haikstep Military Base on the outskirts of Cairo has convicted 25 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood and acquitted 15, Reuters reports. I’m trying to get in touch with Brotherhood lawyer Abd al-Moneim Abd al-Maqsud for the full details. His phone must be ringing off the hook.
Update: Abd al-Moneim and the rest of the defense team were not allowed in to hear the verdict, so it’s still unclear who was convicted of what. I spoke with Zahara Khairat al-Shatir, daughter of the imprisoned deputy guide, who described in vivid terms police beating members of the detainees’ families to prevent them from gathering outside the military base and busing them several kilometers down the road. When family members gathered in a mosque for safety, police surrounded it to prevent them from leaving.
According to the Brotherhood’s Web site, the following 25 men were sentenced to prison:
- Khairat al-Shatir, 7 years
- Hassan Malik, 7 years
- Yusef Nada, 10 years (in absentia)
- `Ali Hamat Ghalib, 10 years (in absentia)
- Ibrahim Faruq al-Ziat, 10 years (in absentia)
- Fathi Ahmad al-Khuli, 10 years (in absentia)
- Tawfiq al-Wa`i, 10 years (in absentia)
- As`ad Al-Shikha, 5 years (in absentia)
- Ahmad Shusha, 5 years
- Sadiq al-Sharqawi, 5 years
- Ahmad Ashraf, 5 years
- Ahmad Muhammad `Abd al-`Ati, 5 years (in absentia)
- Muhammad `Ali Bishar, 3 years
- Sayid M`aruf, 3 years
- Mamduh al-Hussaini, 3 years
- Farid Galbat, 3 years
- Diya al-Din Farahat, 3 years
- Salah al-Desuqi, 3 years
- Fathi Muhammad Baghdadi, 3 years
- Ayman `Abd al-Ghani, 3 years
- `Assam `Abd al-Muhsin, 3 years
- Muhammad Abu Zid, 3 years
- Mustafa Salim, 3 years
- `Assam Hashish, 3 years
- Midhat al-Hadad, 3 years
Acquitted:
- Khalid `Awda
- Sa`id S`ad `Ali
- Muhammad Mihna Hassan
- Muhammad Hafiz
- Muhammad Baligh
- Mahmud al-Mursi
- Ahmad `Ezz al-Din
- Gamal Sha`aban
- Yassir `Abdu
- Mahmud `Adb al-Latif `Abd al-Gawad
- Osama Sharibi
- Amir Bassam
- `Abd al-Rahman Sa`udi
- Ahmad al-Nihas
- Al-Hagg Hassan Zat
Screen-shot of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Web site, April 15, 2008
Someone was kind enough to post Amnesty International’s swift condemnation of the verdict in the comments section. See below.
[tags]Egypt, Military Court, Muslim Brotherhood[/tags]
2 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
41 queries. 0.117 seconds. CMS: WordPress. Design: modified Hiperminimalist Theme.
RSS for posts and comments.
Valid XHTML and CSS.
via e-mail, amnesty international’s statement:
—
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday 15 April 2008
Egypt: Sentences against Muslim Brothers a perversion of justice
The prison sentences handed down by an Egyptian military court against 25
members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood are a perversion of justice,
Amnesty International said today.
This trial appeared to be politically motivated from the start, when
President Mubarak sent the defendants for trial before a military court
despite an earlier civilian court ruling that some of them should be
released, said Amnesty International. Todays sentences leave little
doubt that the Egyptian authorities are determined to undermine what has
become the main opposition group in the country.
The military court in Haikstip, northern Cairo, handed down prison
sentences of up to 10 years against 25 defendants, including seven who are
not in custody and who were tried in absentia. Fifteen other defendants
were acquitted and are yet to be released. Khairat al-Shatir, the third
highest ranking Muslim Brotherhood leader, and Hassan Malek, received
seven years imprisonment. Sixteen others received prison sentences
ranging from three to five years. Five of those who were tried in absentia
received 10 year prison terms, while the other two received a sentence of
five years each.
The defendants were all tried on terrorism-related and money laundering
charges, which they denied. Specifically, they were alleged to have
financed a banned organization and provided students with weapons and
military training. Following amendment of the military justice code in
2007, they can appeal to the Supreme Court of Military Appeals, but this
can only examine procedural matters, not the substance of the case.
Todays verdict, which had been postponed twice, came amid reports that
some 200 Muslim Brotherhood supporters, including relatives of the
defendants, were detained by security forces when they sought to enter the
military compound in which the court was sitting. Security forces
prevented human rights observers and the media from the court and allowed
only the head of the defendants’ legal team but no other defence lawyers
to be present.
Thousands of security forces were reportedly deployed along the way to the
court compounds in Haikstip as well as on the main routes leading to Cairo
centre, in an attempt to prevent any demonstrations against the military
courts verdict.
The highly-publicised trial of the 40 men all of whom are civilians
opened on 26 April 2007, after President Mubarak ordered in February 2007
that they should be tried before a military court. Earlier, a civilian
court threw out charges against 17 of them.
During the trial, international observers sent by Amnesty International
and other organisations were prevented from attending.
Trying civilians before military courts, whose judges are serving members
of the military, flouts international standards of fair trial and is
inherently unjust, regardless of whether the defendants are allowed a
right of appeal or not. said Amnesty International, reiterating previous
calls by the organization. All of those convicted should be promptly and
retried by a civilian court that conforms to international fair trial
standards or else released.
Comment by C in Cairo — April 15, 2008 #
Thanks, C in Cairo.
Comment by The Skeptic — April 16, 2008 #