The President of Zagazig University decided on Sunday to refer 146 Muslim Brothers student activists, who are also part of the Free Student Union, to disciplinary boards.
Tag: ikhwan
Trial of Attar, MB leaders
I attended on Wednesday the circus trial of the alleged Egyptian Canadian spy Muhammad el-Attar.
The court building was under tight siege by Mubarak’s Central Security Forces, as the trial of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders was in process, on the ground floor. The troops restricted access of families and the group’s supporters into the building, as the verdict was expected to out. And it was a rotten verdict. The judge rejected the appeal of Khairat el-Shatter and his colleagues to lift the govt’s freeze on their funds.
Khaled Salam, the editor of Ikhwan Web reminds us that the judge in that MB case, is the same Judge who sent Dr. Ayman Nour and Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim to prison.
And more news are trickling from the Tora gulag on the appalling prison conditions the Brothers are kept under:
The Muslim Brotherhood detainees in the southern Cairo prison of Tura (28 detainees) are facing harsh and poor treatment by prison administration which succumbs to the pressures of the State Security Police Service. Detainees are kept in their prison cells for 23 hours every day and get only one hour break outdoors. At least six individuals are kept in 2×3 meters prison cells. Moreover, detainees were prevented from performing the Friday Prayer during the last two weeks
As for the unsanitary conditions that these political detainees face, their cells lack toilets. Available toilets are shared by other inmates and have no doors!
On Wednesday, a small group of journalists and detainees’ relatives held a vigil in front of the Press Syndicate, denouncing the trial of civilians in military courts, and demanding the release of MB journalist Ahmad Ezzedin.
On the previous day (Tuesday), tens of doctors held a silent protest in front of Dar el-Hekma (Doctor’s Syndicate) in downtown Cairo, demanding the release of 22 of their colleagues, who were detained in Mubarak’s ongoing crackdown on the Brotherhood.
Trials Day
It was my first time to go to the New Cairo Court House Compound, in el-Tagammu el-Khames, on the outskirts of my neighborhood Nasr City, east of Cairo, to cover the trial of Muhammad el-Attar, the alleged Egyptian Canadian spy, coincidentally at the same time when Khairat el-Shatter and other MB leaders were appealing against the govt freeze on their funds. Central Security Forces were deployed in the morning, awaiting the arrival of the MB detainees, besieging the gates of the court house compound.
As with all trials I had attended (I never covered a military trial before though), the High State Security court was similar to a circus, with many standing on the bench seats, shouting every now and then, the TV cameramen pushing and shoving to get a good view, the judges whispering to themselves, to the lawyers and the prosecutors without us being able to hear a word.
Muhammad el-Attar denied the prosecutor’s charges, and shouted from his cage saying he was innocent, and that he “was pressured by the Mukhabarat into confessing” he was spying for the Israelis. “The charges are fabricated,” he said. The Judge did not give him the chance to speak, saying Muhammad should speak to his lawyer first, and then the lawyer would say whatever Muhammad wanted to convey to the court.
And speaking of the lawyer–the defendant’s former lawyer Ragab el-Assal, who withdrew few days before the start of the trial, showed up today to announce his resignation from the case officially in front of the judge. Another lawyer stepped in for Muhammad’s defence by the name Ibrahim Bassiouny. I asked Bassiouny outside the court later how he was assigned to the case, he said he was assigned today by “coincidence” as he had gone to the court for another case, when Muhammad’s family bumped into him and asked him whether he wanted to take up the case, after the Lawyers’ Syndicate, he said, failed to provide one.
Earlier, an army of TV crews and photographers had assembled outside the compound waiting for the prison truck that held the alleged spy into court. Hardly no one managed to see him, since the police, acting all cheeky, took the guy inside the court building via a garage tunnel.
Muhammad’s trial was postponed to Wednesday. So the new lawyer has to read the entire case file, prepare his defense in four days.
We were on the first floor. Every now and then, we could hear strong chants. The chants were coming from the ground floor, where the trial of the MB leaders was in process. The appeal was adjourned, also to Wednesday.