(AFP File Photo)
The North Giza Criminal Court will resume on Sunday the trial of prominent activists Alaa Abdel Fatah, Mona Seif, 6 April Youth Movement member Ahmed Abdallah and nine others charged with setting fire to the electoral headquarters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq.
The trial took a one-month-hiatus after the court decided on 3 September 2013 to postpone the next hearing to Sunday.
Shafiq’s electoral headquarters, located in Dokki , was burnt on 28 May 2012. Shafiq initially accused Abdel Fatah, his sister Mona Seif and ten others of starting the fire.
Shafiq later relinquished the lawsuit on 4 June 2012, saying in a press release that he will not be “a stick to hit revolutionaries” and that the Muslim Brotherhood fabricates charges against revolutionary activists, but investigations regarding the fire continued until the prosecution decided to close the case.
Former Prosecutor General, Tala’at Abdallah decided to re-open the case in May 2013, in a step that was described by Mahmoud Belal, a lawyer for the accused as “a Brotherhood action to settle accounts with the accused” During this time, Alaa Abdel Fatah was also accused of inciting violence around the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guidance headquarters, in what is known as the Mokattam Clashes on 8 March 2013.
