By Pakinam Amer
Jul 16, 2007, 1:10 GMT
Cairo - A military tribunal appointed to try 40 Muslim Brotherhood leaders held its third session Sunday, amid protests by international rights groups and Egyptian lawyers who contested the legality of prosecuting civilians in military courts.
The Supreme Military Court in Heikstep, several kilometres north- east of Cairo, witnessed the presence of 33 of the defendants and their attorneys, who had boycotted the first session in protest.
Six of the leaders outside Egypt were tried in absentia, while one was being treated at a prison hospital after suffering a heart attack shortly before the court session.
The high-profile Muslim Brothers are civilians but are being tried in a military court on charges of money laundering, belonging to and financing a banned group 'that uses terrorism to achieve its ends,' disrupting public peace and endangering civil liberties, according to a brief statement Sunday by the chief judge.
Behind bars in the courtroom stood many of the Brotherhood's most popular faces: atop the list was Khairat el-Shater, the group's third-in-command, a top consultant engineer by profession and successful businessman.
El-Shater, a member of the Brotherhood's so-called Guidance Bureau, or politburo, was dressed in white and often interrupted the court proceedings with loud protests.
'What is being done here (in the court) is nothing but a play, a farce,' the bearded el-Shater told the panel of judges. 'State Security Police have orchestrated this. It's a farce, politically motivated and unclean. The present regime bears responsibility for it.'
During a review of evidence allegedly confiscated from the defendants' houses, el-Shater claimed that some of the exhibited items - including laptops, CDs, video tapes, books and documents - did not belong to him.
He accused police of 'planting' evidence in an attempt to frame him. The court was in complicity and had instructions on his sentence in advance, el-Shater said.
El-Shater's statements were accompanied each time by cheering from the defendants' families, whose shouts of 'God is great' echoed across the courtroom.
Most of the defendants were arrested in November, shortly following a 'military parade' performed by Brotherhood-affiliated students at Azhar University in Cairo.
As a protest against what they deemed 'blatant security interference' in student-union elections, a few dozen students had demonstrated in black uniforms and headbands, and performed a choreographed martial-arts fight sequence on campus.
A fierce security crackdown followed, with the regime using the Azhar University incident as 'proof' that the Brotherhood was reviving its paramilitary wing.
The Brothers officially denounced violence three decades ago. The Azhar students, who later apologized for what they called 'shameful behaviour,' did not brandish weapons during their protest.
A group of alleged top leaders was rounded up from their homes in rowdy, overnight raids. According to the daughter of one defendant, police left no stone unturned during their search, confiscating even children's computer games and 'terrorizing the whole family.'
In a procedure documented by the London-based non-governmental organization Amnesty International, the leaders were charged with membership in a banned organization and with 'providing students with weapons and military training.'
In January, a Cairo criminal court acquitted el-Shater and his codefendants and ordered their immediate release.
Shortly after the acquittal, the leaders were transferred to a military court after a presidential decree. The decree was revoked by Cairo's Supreme Administrative Court, but that decision was soon reversed when the state appealed.
During Sunday's bench trial, one attorney after the other demanded a change of court, insisting that the case should not come under the jurisdiction of military courts. As they challenged the court, the chief judge agreed to 'look into' the matter but refused to dismiss the case all together from his court.
Sunday's hearing was delayed for more than two hours and was generally marked by chaos.
Families of defendants said that the atmosphere surrounding the case did not bode well. Their purpose in attending was to support their loved ones in hardship, but they had no faith in the fairness of the trial.
Before the session started, and in what appeared to be an act of protest, one the 33 defendants stood up, calling for noon prayers. The Brothers behind bars performed both the noon and afternoon prayers, joined by their wives, sons and daughters in the courtroom.
After praying, one the defendants started a series of supplications, wishing in a loud, firm voice that those who did them 'injustice would suffer the same way.' Court officials could only listen as family members, some weeping, repeated the supplication.
Only attorneys and family members of the defendants were allowed inside the courtroom.
Authorities refused to permit representatives of international human-rights groups, bloggers and pro-democracy activists to attend as observers. Among those turned away was former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, a human-rights activist who served on the defence team of hanged Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Any reporters who were present only gained entry by pretending to be a relative of one of the defendants. They had to be fully veiled and to carry identification cards that did not identify them as media personnel.
All mobile phones, cameras, tape recorders and even pens and notebooks were confiscated before entering the courtroom. Copies of the Koran were checked page-by-page, and even women were fully searched in private rooms. Everyone was eyed suspiciously.
Authorities refused to let some of the families leave the courtroom before the session closed.
A security man murmured to a protesting attendant who had wished to leave that 'the rules' had it that no one was allowed to set a foot outside the courtroom before the hearing has ended, so that 'undercover' reporters could not hurry to their editors with the session's coverage.
The hearing, which lasted for more than seven hours, ended at night, after the court ruled that the next session would be held August 5.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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