Agencies
Cairo
An Egyptian appeals court rejected yesterday a request that new judges be appointed for two trials involving ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, judicial officials said.
The trials are part of a sweeping crackdown waged against Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood since the army overthrew him in July, and the former president could face the death penalty if convicted.
The court is now expected to set a date for the resumption of each of the two trials involving jailbreak and espionage charges, the officials said.
Defence lawyers had requested that a new panel of judges examine both cases involving Mursi and Brotherhood figures, complaining about a soundproof glass cage in which the accused are held when the court is in session.
The special dock is designed to stop Mursi and other defendants from interrupting the proceedings, as they have done in the past.
The recusal request was also motivated by the alleged taping of a private conversation between the defendants and their defence team, after a newspaper leaked talks between Mursi and lawyer Selim al-Awa.
The court also fined two defendants, Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagui and Islamic preacher Safwat Hegazi, 6,000 Egyptian pounds (more than $850) for each trial, as the recusal request had been made in their names.
Mursi and 130 other defendants, including Palestinian and Lebanese militants, are accused of organising jailbreaks and attacking police stations during the 2011 uprising that toppled autocratic president Hosni Mubarak.
Prosecutors allege the attacks on police stations and the jailbreaks, in which Mursi and other political prisoners escaped, were a Brotherhood-led conspiracy to sow chaos in Egypt.
In the espionage trial, Mursi and 35 others are accused of conspiring with foreign powers, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Iran to destabilise Egypt.
Mursi is also on trial for inciting the murder of protesters during his presidency.
The ousted Islamist is to face a fourth trial for insulting the judiciary, but no date has yet been announced.
In other developments yesterday, a Cairo criminal court sentenced 17 Brotherhood followers to imprisonment after finding them guilty of involvement in violence and the attempted murder of opponents, state media reported, the latest in verdicts targeting Islamists.
The court handed down jail terms ranging from three to seven years for violence that erupted in the northern Cairo district of Shubra following Mursi’s removal. The ruling can be appealed.
Thousands of Mursi’s backers have been rounded up since his overthrow for allegedly inciting or involvement in violence.
Hundreds of others have been killed in a security clampdown.
The Brotherhood has repeatedly denied any links to the violence and has accused the military-backed government of oppression.
The army chief who deposed Mursi, Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, is widely expected to win presidential elections scheduled for late May.
Journalist said to work for Al Jazeera arrested
Egyptian security forces have arrested a man who worked for Al Jazeera television and accused him of inciting and taking part in violence, the state news agency Mena said yesterday.
An Al Jazeera spokesman could not confirm whether the man arrested in Suez worked for the Doha-based channel.
Three Al Jazeera journalists are already on trial in Egypt charged with aiding a “terrorist group”, a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood. They deny the charges.
Mena named the man as Abdel Rahman Shaheen and described him as a Muslim Brotherhood member. It said he had also worked for the Islamist movement’s now closed TV station and newspaper.
The prosecutor’s office had issued nine warrants for Shaheen’s arrest on charges of “inciting and taking part in acts of violence in Suez, attacking the security forces and army in Suez, and inciting people to carry out acts of sabotage in the Suez province by distributing funds to them”, the agency said.
