Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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'Lenient' sentences by military court

By Khaled Dawoud

The Supreme Military Court wrote the final chapter last Thursday in a mysterious saga involving suspected members of the country's largest militant organisation, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya. Twenty-one defendants had been charged with planning to revive the group's activities in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and plotting to assassinate top officials.

Due to the seriousness of the charges, the most optimistic Islamist lawyers had expected no less than three death sentences against leading defendants. But the Supreme Military Court, sparing all the suspects' lives, condemned 20 defendants to jail terms, ranging from five years to life, and acquitted one.

Four group leaders were sentenced to life, seven to 15 years, three to 10 years, four to seven years and two to five years, all with hard labour.

Unlike the military trials of late 1992, through which the government aimed to check escalating militant violence, the "Montazah Palace case" was shrouded in secrecy since its opening. Lawyers, relatives and reporters learned about the opening of the trial one day after it actually started on 29 April. The Islamist lawyers complained that they had no access to the dossier of the case and were only allowed to take notes at the military prosecutor's office. The date on which the sentences were to be handed down was postponed twice in one week for unknown reasons.

Relatives of the defendants, who hail mostly from Alexandria, gathered since early last Thursday morning outside the Haikstep military camp, 35 kilometres northeast of Cairo, where the court hearings were held. "We are aware that we will not be allowed to enter because they [security men] are apprehensive of our possible reaction," said one woman whose brother is a defendant. "But we have faith in God, and we pray that the judges will be merciful," she added.

Relatives were informed about the sentences by lawyers and reporters who attended the court session. Reporters were escorted in one bus to the heavily-guarded courtroom. Immediately after the presiding judge read out the sentences, the top defendant, Fawzi El-Sherif, shouted, "Thanks to God ... the Almighty has spared our lives." Other defendants started hugging and embracing each other and chanting the usual anti-government slogans. Others confirmed their commitment to the establishment of a strict Islamic state, where the Shari'a (Islamic law) is enforced.

Asked about his position on a decision taken by jailed Al-Gama'a leaders to stop anti-government violence, El-Sherif said that he supported the move "because this was an order given by the top legitimate leadership of the Al-Gama'a."

Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayyat told Al-Ahram Weekly that "as a matter of principle, I cannot praise sentences handed down by military courts. My position is that civilians should be tried by civilian judges and that military courts fall short of the accepted standards for a fair trial."

He added, however, that he cannot but "welcome the fact that no death sentences were handed down." El-Zayyat, who attended only one court hearing to protest the restrictions lawyers faced in defending their clients, added that he considered the sentences "a positive response to the calm which has prevailed since the Al-Gama'a confirmed its initiative to stop violence."

El-Zayyat conceded that despite his conviction that the confrontation between government and militants had been defused, he had expected that some of the defendants would be sentenced to death. "People were sentenced to death in previous cases on less serious charges. In this case, the defendants were accused of planning to assassinate top officials."

The Al-Gama'a, following reported splits and disagreements, issued a statement in April announcing that it would stop all anti-government attacks inside and outside Egypt. The Interior Ministry, for its part, began releasing hundreds of militants who had been detained for years without being charged or put on trial. Islamist lawyers also said that the treatment of detained militants had relatively improved, noting with great satisfaction that authorities no longer carried out wide-scale crackdowns against suspected militants.

According to the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, 1,021 Al-Gama'a and Jihad militants have been put on trial before military courts in a total of 33 cases since December 1992. Death sentences were handed down against 94 defendants, including 26 in absentia. Under the Emergency Law, in force since 1981, the sentences cannot be appealed. Those sentenced in absentia are not eligible for a retrial upon their arrest.

Islamist lawyers told the Weekly that there were no pending cases before military courts. However, El-Zayyat said that he expected that one case, involving mainly Jihad militants, would be referred soon to military courts. "This case involves a number of defendants who were handed over to Egypt by South Africa, Yemen, Libya and Saudi Arabia, and others who have been detained here for a number of years on charges of involvement in the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan in 1995," El-Zayyat said. He added that the trial would be "interesting because Jihad has announced its opposition to the Al-Gama'a's renunciation of violence."

Sources close to militant groups told the Weekly that while the government seems to be lenient with the Al-Gama'a because of its rejection of violence, the situation may be different with Jihad, which has announced that it will continue the "struggle", mainly against the United States, describing it as "the main supporter of the infidel regimes in the region".

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