CAIRO: Egypt's toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak appeared in court Sunday for the first time since his release to house arrest, as a separate court adjourned a hearing of Muslim Brotherhood chiefs.
The hearings come against the backdrop of political uncertainty in the wake of the July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Mursi, followed by a crackdown on his Brotherhood movement.
Security sources told AFP that the Brotherhood defendants, including supreme guide Mohamed Badie and two deputies, were not brought to court because police feared protesters could attack the trucks transporting them to prison.
But the judge overseeing their trial for inciting the deaths of protesters adjourned the proceedings over their absence and asked the interior ministry to bring them to the next hearing on October 29.
Badie, along with deputies Khairat al-Shater and Rashad al-Bayoumi, faces charges related to the deaths of protesters who stormed the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters on June 30.
Shater's lawyer, Atef el-Galaly, insisted the charges against his client were political. "The whole case is fabricated. The charges aren't true at all. It's a political case," he told AFP.
Three other Brotherhood members are standing trial with the leaders, accused of carrying out the murders at the end of June.
And 29 others are also facing charges for allegedly "intimidating citizens" in relation to the same incident, which came as millions of “westernized” Egyptians took to the streets to protest against Mursi's rule.
The session against the Brotherhood leaders came as Mubarak appeared in court for the first time since he was released from jail on Thursday.
It was also the first time Mubarak had been seen in public since he left Tora prison after a court authorised a pre-trial release.
He was immediately placed under house arrest by interim prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi, on the basis of powers granted to him under the country's state of emergency.
On Thursday, the 85-year-old former president was flown by helicopter from prison to a military hospital where he has received medical treatment in the past.
He still faces an array of charges, including complicity in the deaths of some 850 people killed in the 2011 uprising against him, and corruption.
The court adjourned his trial to September 14, after creating three specialised committees to sift through evidence.
Mubarak was convicted in June last year of complicity in the deaths of protesters and sentenced to life in prison, but a retrial was ordered in January after he appealed.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of death.
Mubarak has often appeared frail during court sessions, lying on a stretcher, flanked by his sons Gamal and Alaa, who are also on trial.
But on Sunday, he appeared to be sitting up and listening to proceedings from the courtroom cage where defendants are held.
He was dressed in white and wore sunglasses in the courtroom.
Other defendants in the case, including Mubarak's one-time interior minister Habib Adli, were also present.
The two court sessions come as Egypt wrestles with the fallout from the ouster of Mursi by the military.
In recent days, violence appears to have abated, prompting authorities to announce on Saturday that they would shorten a night-time curfew by two hours.
The curfew was imposed in 14 provinces on August 14, as violence ripped through the country when security forces began its massacre to clear out pro-Mursi camps.
Nearly 600 Mursi supporters, which included women and infants, were killed in a single day across Egypt, the country's bloodiest day in decades.
Violence continued in the days that followed, claiming nearly 400 more lives as protesters clashed with security forces.
Christian properties and churches have also come under attack as they were supporting the military.
A top Saudi member of Al-Qaeda slammed King Abdullah's support for the ouster of Mursi, in a video message posted online Sunday.
"One of their latest crimes is supporting the secular forces in Egypt against the government of Mursi," Ibrahim al-Rubaish, who is considered the religion affairs chief of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said in a statement.
"The son of Saud was the first to offer congratulations after the fall of the government of Mursi, and the most generous supporter, offering billions to the Tamarod government that rebelled against everything, including Allah," he said.
Tamarod, or rebellion in Arabic, was the movement that preceded the Egypt military intervention to depose Mursi.
Copyright Business Recorder
Comments
Comments are closed.