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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Subdued trial for Brotherhood
By Khaled Dawoud
No anti-government slogans or angry protests were shouted by 20 leading figures of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group when their military trial resumed on Tuesday. Hearings had first opened on 25 December with the Brothers facing charges of seeking to revive the group's activity by gaining control of professional syndicates, student unions and mosques.
Amid the usual tight security measures at the Haikstep desert military camp, 35 kilometres northeast of Cairo, the military court listened to four state security officers who had investigated the case and arrested the defendants. This was the third court session since the opening of the trial.
One of the four security witnesses said that defendant Saad El-Ashmawi -- who had spent three years in prison after being convicted by a military court in 1995 for joining an illegal group -- sought to revive the group's activity in cooperation with the other defendants. The witness mentioned the names of Mohamed Bishr, engineering professor at Menoufiya University, and Mohamed Abdel-Meguid, who tops the list of defendants and is a professor at Beni Suef University, as the key accomplices in the Brotherhood's alleged plot to control professional syndicates. The same witness said that the defendants wanted to revive the group's activity "in order to establish an Islamic state on the pretext that the present government does not implement Islamic Shari'a."
Observers believe that putting the defendants, including university professors, engineers, doctors and lawyers, on trial before a military court, which is usually reserved for militants involved in terrorist attacks, was a clear indication that the government was determined not to allow any public activity by political Islamist groups.
Most of the defendants were arrested while attending a meeting in October at the headquarters of the Association of Islamic Engineering Syndicates in Maadi, south of Cairo, while four others were arrested at their homes.
Prosecutors said those who took part in the meeting were outlining a plan to revive the Brotherhood's control over key syndicates, such as those of lawyers and engineers. The government placed most of these syndicates under judicial control following allegations of financial irregularities three years ago.
However, a final court ruling issued a few days before the defendants' arrest ordering new elections at the Bar Association had apparently prompted Brotherhood members to start preparing for the upcoming vote.
Brotherhood sources said they believed that the government's crackdown was also linked to parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of this year.
The Brotherhood is Egypt's oldest and largest political Islamist group. Like other militant groups, the Brotherhood had been pressing for decades for the establishment of a strict Islamic state. But they say that they do not approve of violence as a means of achieving their goal.
President Hosni Mubarak, who came to power in 1981, had tolerated the group and allowed its members to run for parliamentary elections a number of times, apparently in the hope of containing more radical elements.
However, following the escalation of violence between the government and militants in 1992, Mubarak was apparently not satisfied with the Brotherhood's position. The group had refused to condemn militant violence, blaming the government's heavy-handed policies instead.
In early 1995, more than 100 key Brotherhood figures were arrested and referred to military courts, known for their speedy procedures and harsh sentences. Human rights groups protested, claiming that military courts do not guarantee a fair trial and insisting that civilians should be tried by civilian judges and not army officers.
More than 60 Brotherhood members received jail terms ranging between three and five years. Since then, police has regularly rounded up members of the group for short detention periods over charges of joining an illegal organisation and seeking to revive the outlawed group's activity.
In an apparent change of strategy, defendants in the current trial and most of their 200 lawyers publicised their "trust and confidence" in military judges.
"We have a just case; so we don't care who is trying us," said Moukhtar Nouh, former Bar Association treasurer and a key defendant.
Asked whether this meant that the Brotherhood sought a compromise with the government, Nouh told reporters from the iron cage where he was being held that the group "always wanted to work through legal channels and never sought an escalation with the government".
All lawyers insisted that the case was politically-motivated and that no evidence had been submitted by prosecutors to support the charges. They added that all defendants were exercising their legal right to meet and discuss the affairs of the syndicates to which they belong. They demanded the immediate release on bail of all defendants on the grounds that they are all public figures and there was no fear they would escape.
In Tuesday's court session, the lawyers said they would delay questioning security witnesses until the latter finished their testimony. The judges adjourned hearings until Monday to hear more witnesses.
Mohamed Tousson, one of the lawyers representing first defendant Abdel-Meguid, said that a number of video tapes and records which were shown them by the court as part of the evidence "confirmed our view that there is no evidence at all in this case. They contained the usual discussions which had nothing to do with the Brotherhood."
Tousson added that the lawyers will hold a news conference soon "to show the whole world that this case has no basis whatsoever."
